This is a proposal to establish a Center of Excellence combining the strengths of three large laboratories, each of which is currently approaching major problems of developmental neurobiology at a different level. The primary aim of the project is to develop a concerted, synergistic attack on several major developmental problems: neural cell interactions and regeneration, neuronal viability based on synaptic interactions, and mapping of sensory functions. Each of the laboratories has already developed methodological salients for attacking these problems: molecular cellular adhesion assays, phosphoprotein characterization, tissue culture assays, and electrophysiology and neuroanatomic mapping. By combining these intellectual and operational resources, it is expected that major progress can be made using a multilevel attack and defined systems shared among all three research groups. At the molecular level, we will analyze the expression of cell adhesion molecules in regeneration of neural and neuromuscular systems and in associated cell migration events and the order of gene expression of the phosphoproteins synapsin I, DARPP-32 and G-substrate as a function of synaptogenesis, at the cellular level, we will investigate the laminar, columnar and connectional organization in neural maps instructing such as the striate cortex, using identification of cell specific surface markers and in vitro tissue slice techniques. At the highest level, the contribution of these processes to physiological function will be assessed using electrophysiological measurements. The successful merger of these approaches will require the combined efforts and cooperation of these three laboratories which are in close physical proximity. A Center of Excellence would strongly enhance their intellectual cooperation and the results of this merger are expected to have direct pertinence to the study of degenerative disease and neural regeneration.
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