Liliane Schoofs
Abstract: Humanity has always been intrigued by the nearly mythical workings of the brain. Resolving these will be one of the major challenges of the 21st century. With its billions of neurons and innumerable connections, the human brain is of such complex nature, that trying to understand it may seem a vain project. Yet, by using the ‘mini-brain’ of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, which shares many components with the human brain but counts only 302 neurons, thorough research can penetrate into this complexity. The billions of neurons in our brain communicate with each other by secretion of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides. The latter small regulatory proteins have a key role in brain functioning and are involved in various types of behavior, including cognitive functions such as learning and memory, pair bonding, parental care and social behaviors. Yet how they control these functions is still poorly understood. Neuropeptide systems are very well conserved across animals, as they originated very early in animal evolution and have been functioning as modulators of neural circuits and adaptive behaviors since the Cambrian explosion. Here I will focus on how neuropeptides play a role in learning, storage and retrieval of memory. Like vertebrates, the genetic animal model C. elegans has a broad diversity of at least 150 neuropeptide and 160 receptor genes. We have mapped the neuropeptide-receptor network brain-wide and uncovered an extensive wireless signaling network of neuropeptide pathways, several of which are shared from worm to human. Genetic experiments then revealed a modulatory role for these neuropeptide pathways in the experience-dependent modulation of decision-making, learning and memory. In sum, our research indicates that molecular learning mechanisms are ancient, and provide a scaffold to further unravel peptide actions in learning circuits in more complex brains. Neuropeptides may well be the chemical reflection of our thoughts and emotions and hence our research connects with other cognitive science disciplines. It will be only a matter of time to fully uncover the biology of neuropeptides and through them to unravel the mysteries of our brain, the source of our thoughts, feelings and personality, and to find appropriate solutions for certain types of disabilities, psychiatric problems and neurodegenerative diseases.
Bio: .Liliane Schoofs is full professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the KULeuven. She had studied biology at the KULeuven and was an INSERM research fellow at the University of Rouen (France) in 1987. She obtained her PhD in 1988 and was a postdoc at the Agricultural Research Centre in College Station (USDA, Texas) in 1989. She has supervised over 50 PhD students and has authored 350+ research papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. She is lecturer of several courses, including animal biology, genomics and proteomics, and immunological biotechnology. From 2013 till 2017 she was vice-rector for research policy at KULeuven and served as council member of the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO), the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB), the LERU vice-rectors for research steering committee, the strategic European platform Flanders, among others. She also served as a panel member of the Advanced Research Grant programme of the European Research Council (ERC) and is currently a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Arts (Belgium, www.kvab.be) and the European Molecular Biology organisation (https://www.embo.org). She was also holder of an ERC advanced grant on the role of neuropeptides in learning and memory, which is still the focus of her ongoing research.
Affiliation: KULeuven, Belgium
