Brad Aimone’s Webpage
I am a Graduate Student in
the Computational Neurobiology program
at UCSD, working in Rusty Gage’s laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and
collaborating with Janet Wiles
at the
Research Interests
The dentate gyrus of the hippocampus is one of two
regions in mammalian brains which retains the capacity to produce new neurons
throughout life. The computational impact
of adding these new neurons is unclear.
The hippocampus is considered to be important in the formation of new
memories and the conversion of short term memories to long term memories. New granule cells in the dentate gyrus
integrate over a period of several weeks, gradually integrating into the
existing dentate gyrus circuitry and learning to respond to the animal’s
sensory inputs.
One of our current
hypotheses is that new neurons may contribute to the formation of time
associations in long term memories. (Aimone et
al., 2006, Aimone et
al., 2009) New neurons learn at
higher rates than older cells, potentially allowing them to integrate
information across distinct sensory events.
We are currently pursuing experimental approaches to test this
hypothesis.
Newsweek blog report on our work.
To learn more about
neurogenesis in the adult brain, check out our encyclopedia
article in Scholarpedia.
Affiliations
In the past I have worked
with the Christopher Reeves
Foundation Research Consortium, where I developed tools for analyzing
spinal cord injury gene expression data (see our website here). I have also been funded by the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind.
Currently, I am affiliated
with the new NSF Temporal Dynamics
of Learning Center and the James S McDonnell
Foundation
Manuscripts, Abstracts, and
Presentations
Neurogenesis
Aimone JB,
Wiles J, and Gage FH – “Computational Influence of Adult Neurogenesis on Memory
Encoding.” Neuron, January 2009 Link to paper
Toni N,
Teng EM, Bushong EA, Aimone JB, Zhao CM, Consiglio A, van Praag H, Martone ME,
Ellisman MH, and Gage FH – “Synapse formation on neurons born in the adult
hippocampus.” Nature Neuroscience, June
2007 Link to paper
Aimone JB,
Wiles J, and Gage FH - “Potential Role for Adult Neurogenesis in the Encoding
of Time in New Memories.” Nature Neuroscience, 9(6), June 2006. Link to paper
Jessberger S, Aimone JB, and Gage FH - “Neurogenesis.” Learning and Memory: A
Comprehensive Reference (Chapter 42)
Elsevier Limited,
Aimone JB, Jessberger S, and Gage FH – “Adult Neurogenesis.” Scholarpedia Link to
article
Poster: Society for
Neuroscience 2006;
J.B. Aimone,
J.L. Elman, J. Wiles, & F.H. Gage - “Computational role of adult
neurogenesis in long-term function of the dentate gyrus”
Presentation: 2005 Learning
and Memory Meeting,
James
B. Aimone, Janet Wiles,
Affymetrix Microarray Studies
Barkho BZ, Song HJ, Aimone JB,
Smart RD, Kuwabara T, Nakashima K, Gage FH, and Zhao X - “Identification of
astrocyte-expressed factors that modulate neural stem/progenitor cell
differentiation.” Stem Cell and Development, 15(3), June 2006. Link to
paper
Aimone JB,
Leasure JL, Perreau VM, Thallmair M and the Christopher Reeve Paralysis
Foundation – “Spatial and Temporal Gene Expression Profiling of the Contused
Rat Spinal Cord” Experimental Neurology, 189(2), October 2004 (Cover Article).
Link to
paper Spinal Cord Injury GeneChip Database
Aimone JB
and Gage FH, 2003 – “Unbiased Characterization of High-densisty Oligonucleotide
Microarrays Using Probe-Level Statistics” Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 135(1-2), May 2004. Link
to Paper
Presentation: Society for Neuroscience 2005;
L.D.F. Moon; J.E. Torres-Munoz; C.K. Petito; J.B. Aimone; E.S.
Lein; F.H. Gage; & M.B. Bunge - “Identification of genes expressed by
spinal cord neurons regenerating an axon into a schwann cell bridge
transplanted after thoracic transection:
microarray analysis of retrogradely labeled, laser captured neurons”
Poster : Society for Neuroscience
2003;
J.B. Aimone; J.L. Leasure; V. Perreau; M. Thallmair; & Christopher
Reeves Paralysis Foundation Research
Consortium – “Spatial and temporal gene expression of the contused spinal cord
– method analysis and effects on Cholesterol metabolism”
Poster : 2003 Affymetrix GeneChip Microarray Low-Level
Workshop; Berkeley, CA –
James B. Aimone and Fred
H. Gage – “Characterization of the Significance of Expression Changes in
GeneChip System using Probe-Level Statistics”
Other Collaborations
Myers CP, Lewcock JW, Hanson MG, Gosgnach S, Aimone JB, Gage FH, Lee KF, Kristan WB, Landmesser LT, and Pfaff
SL – “Cholinergic Input is Required during Embryonic Development to Mediate
Proper Assemby of Spinal Locomotor Circuits.” Neuron, 46(1), April
2005. Link to paper
Hsieh J, Aimone JB, Kaspar
BK, Kuwabara T, Nakashima K and Gage FH– “IGF-1 Instructs Multipotent Adult
Stem Cells to Become Oligodendrocytes” Journal of Cell Biology, 164(1). Jan. 2004. Link to paper
Coffer JL, Montchamp JL, Aimone
JB, and Weis RP – “Routes to Calcified Porous Silicon: Implications for
Drug Delivery and Biosensing” Physica. Status. Solidi. (a) 197,
No.2. 2003. Link to paper
Poster: 13th Joint Symposium on
Neural Computation, 2006,
Jonathan
D. Driscoll, Stephen D. Larson, James B. Aimone, David W. Matthews, Gert
Cauwenberghs - “A Tunable Silicon Hodgkin-Huxley Neuron”
Poster: Society for Neuroscience
2003;
J. Hsieh; J.B. Aimone; B.K. Kaspar; T. Kuwabara; K.
Nakashima; & F.H. Gage - “IGF-1 instructive effects in the differentiation
of adult multipotent neural stem cells to an oligodendroglial lineage”