Dr. Maggie Crow, a CSHL postdoctoral researcher in quantitative biology, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for her research at the intersection of genomics, neuroscience, and computer science. Crow, who is affiliated with Associate Professor Jesse Gillis鈥� lab, will use the grant for her project studying interneurons, which she likens to 鈥渢he 鈥榖rakes鈥� of the nervous system.鈥�
This work will be an 鈥渁mbitious and exciting extension鈥� of her research in Gillis鈥檚 lab, Crow said, as well as her collaboration with CSHL neurobiology professor Josh Huang.
鈥淎lthough all interneurons play a similar role in brain circuits, they are surprisingly diverse, taking many different shapes and sizes. My goal will be to try to measure and to explain this diversity,鈥� Crow said. 鈥淪ince I鈥檓 a computational biologist, I鈥檒l do this by combining data from many experiments to try to find gene expression and gene regulatory patterns that might explain differences between interneuron types.鈥�
Earlier this month, Crow was the lead author on a study, with Gillis, that provided a comprehensive rankings list for the most suspect genes in different diseases. The work could have future applications in research and drug discovery.
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