Enrico Mugnaini
Title: Edgar F. Stuntz Professor and Director of Northwestern University Institute for Neuroscience (NUIN)
Research area: Neuronal microcircuits and cell class specific gene expression
Degree: M.D., University of Pisa Medical School
Voice: 312.503. 4300
Fax: 312.503. 7345
e-mail: e-mugnaini@northwestern.edu

My laboratory is interested in the general principles of organization of nervous tissues and, in particular, in the mechanisms governing development, maintenance, and plasticity of specific neural cell classes. At present we are exploring the relationships between morphological and chemical phenotypes of special neuronal populations in motor and sensory pathways, and how these cellular and molecular features correlate with function at the cellular and system levels. Specifically, current projects deal with three topics: the small neurons of the cerebellar nuclei and their afferent synaptic connections, the cell biology and development of the unipolar brush cells of the cerebellar cortex, and the neuronal typology and synaptic connections of the deep region of the dorsal cochlear nucleus.

Most of the small neurons in the cerebellar nuclei project to the inferior olive, which is the only source of cerebellar climbing fibers, and regulate the excitability of the olivary neurons and their electrotonic coupling. The inputs regulating their activity are still poorly known. The unipolar brush cells receive a giant excitatory synapse from individual mossy fibers and this synapse offers a valuable model for studying neurotransmission and postsynaptic proteins in the central nervous system. The organization and function of the dorsal cochlear nucleus are still unclear. We have discovered that in laboratory mammals, it contains a cerebellum-like microcircuit that lacks a climbing fiber system. Although mice and rats are our most common experimental animals, we often rely on a comparative neurological approach and we use a variety of animals, as well as human autopsy material. Light and electron microscopic immunocytochemical techniques and tissue culture are widely applied in the laboratory to study cell class specific gene expression.

Representative publications:

Lili Zheng, Gabriela Sekerkova, Kelly Vranich, Lewis G. Tilney,
 Enrico Mugnaini, and James R. Bartles (2000) The Deaf Jerker
 Mouse Has a Mutation in the Gene Encoding the Espin
 Actin-Bundling Proteins of Hair Cell Stereocilia and Lacks
 Espins. Cell 102, 377-385.

Nunzi, MG, Grillo, M, Margolis, FL, and Mugnaini, E.
 Compartmental organization in the developing mouse
  cerebellum as revealed by an olfactory marker
  protein-lacZ transgene. Journal of Comparative Neurology.
  (In press), 1999.

Barmack NH, Fredette BJ, Mugnaini E. Parasolitary
  nucleus: a source of GABAergic vestibular information to
  the inferior olive of rat and rabbit. Journal of Comparative
  Neurology. 392(3): 352-72, Mar 1998.

Katarova Z, Mugnaini E, Sekerkova G, Mann JR,
  Aszodi A, Bosze Z, Greenspan R, Szabo G. Regulation of
  cell-type specific expression of lacZ by the 5'-flanking
  region of mouse GAD67 gene in the central nervous system
  of transgenic mice. European Journal of Neuroscience.
  10(3): 989-99, Mar 1998.

Dunn ME, Schilling K, Mugnaini E. Development and
  fine structure of murine Purkinje cells in dissociated
  cerebellar cultures: dendritic differentiation, synaptic
  maturation, and formation of cell-class specific features.
  Anatomy and Embryology. 197(1): 31-50, Jan 1998.

Dunn ME, Schilling K, Mugnaini E. Development and
  fine structure of murine Purkinje cells in dissociated
  cerebellar cultures: neuronal polarity. Anatomy and
  Embryology. 197(1): 9-29, Jan 1998.

Errante, L, Tang, D, Gardon, M, Sekerkový, G, Mugnaini, E
  and Shaw, G. The intermediate filament protein peripherin
  is a marker for cerebellar climbing fibre. Journal of Neurocytology.
  27: 69-84, 1998.

Sekerkova G, Katarova Z, Mugnaini E, Joo F, Wolff JR, Prodan S,
  Szabo G. Beta-galactosidase-labelled relay neurons of homotopic
  olfactory bulb transplants establish proper afferent and efferent
  synaptic connections with host neurons. Neuroscience.
  80(4): 973-9, Oct 1997.

Mugnaini E, Dino MR, Jaarsma D. The unipolar brush cells of the
  mammalian cerebellum and cochlear nucleus: cytology
  and microcircuitry. Progress in Brain Research. 114: 131-50, 1997.

Jaarsma D, Ruigrok TJ, Caffe R, Cozzari C, Levey AI, Mugnaini E,
  Voogd J. Cholinergic innervation and receptors in the cerebellum.
  Progress in Brain Research. 114: 67-96, 1997.