Distributed throughout the brain are oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) capable of proliferating and differentiating into the oligodendrocytes that wrap around axons (myelination) thereby greatly increasing signal propagation in neural networks. OPCs are essential for axon myelination during brain development, can enhance myelination in response to neural network activity, and can remyelinate axons in response to injury or in diseases such as multiple sclerosis. In this episode I talk with Johns Hopkins Professor Dwight Bergles about his career and work that is identifying the molecular pathways that regulate the proliferation and differentiation of OPCs, their integration into brain circuits and their roles in neuroplasticity in health in disease. During the past quarter century Dwight and his lab members and collaborators made several major discoveries that revealed previously unknown capabilities and functions of OPCs including that they receive synaptic inputs from glutamatergic neurons and respond to neuronal network activity locally and at a distance. And beyond their role in myelination very recent brain-wide cellular and molecular mapping studies suggest an even broader repertoire of OPC functions in the brain throughout life.

LINKS

Bergles Laboratory: https://bergleslab.com/

Oligodendrocyte Development and Plasticity.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4743079/pdf/cshperspect-GLI-a020453.pdf

Glutamatergic synapses on oligodendrocyte precursor cells in the hippocampus.

file:///Users/markmattson/Downloads/35012083.pdf

Oligodendrocyte progenitors balance growth with self-repulsion to achieve homeostasis in the adult brain.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3807738/pdf/nihms-463905.pdf

Brain-wide mapping of oligodendrocyte organization, oligodendrogenesis, and myelin injury.

https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2826%2900112-1

Myelin is repaired by constitutive differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitors.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12997438/pdf/nihms-2139155.pdf

How do neural networks in the cerebral cortex transform incoming sensory information to generate perceptions of the world and elicit behavioral responses? This question is being tackled in the laboratory UC Berkeley Professor Hillel Adesnik whose research program is aimed at understanding exactly how microcircuits in the cerebral cortex process sensory information to generate perceptions and drive behavior. To achieve this goal he deploys cutting-edge optical, genetic, and electrophysiological methods to monitor and manipulate specific subsets of cortical neurons in awake behaving mice. In this episode Hillel talks about the organization of neural circuits in the visual cortex and how cortical microcircuits generate and modify sensory precepts. This research is moving the field closer to understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms by which incoming sensory information is integrated with stored information to produce decisions and actions.

LINKS

Adesnik laboratory at Berkeley

https://adesnik.berkeley.edu/

Lateral competition for cortical space by layer-specific horizontal circuits.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2908490/pdf/nihms214939.pdf

Probing neural codes with two-photon holographic optogenetics.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9793863/pdf/nihms-1753572.pdf

The logic of recurrent circuits in the primary visual cortex

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10774145/pdf/41593_2023_Article_1510.pdf

Recurrent pattern completion drives the neocortical representation of sensory inference

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12586158/pdf/41593_2025_Article_2055.pdf

Feature-tuned synaptic inputs to somatostatin interneurons drive context-dependent processing

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12919646/pdf/nihms-2132228.pdf

Lipids (phospholipids, cholesterol, sphingolipids, ceramides, triglycerides, fatty acids, and others) play vital roles as the major building blocks of cell membranes and in energy metabolism, and cell signaling. University of Alberta cell biologist Maria Ioannou is using cutting-edge cell imaging and biochemistry technologies to elucidate how lipids are moved within and between cells, and how those processes are involved in normal brain functions and if and how those processes are altered in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. She discovered that when neurons are subjected to oxidative stress they accumulate oxidized potentially toxic lipids which are then extruded from the neurons in vesicles which are subsequently internalized by adjacent astrocytes thereby preventing damage to the neurons. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease with ApoE4 increasing risk and ApoE2 and ApoE3 decreasing risk. Maria's laboratory provided evidence that the protective ApoEs enhance removal of toxic lipids from neurons wherease ApoE4 exacerbates accumulation of the toxic lipids in neurons Recently her lab provided that excessive accumulation of the lipid glucosylceramide in neurons results in the release of pathological alpha-synuclein in ectosomes which then transfer the alpha-synuclein to adjacent neurons. These finding may help explain how the neurodegenerative process spreads through neural networks in Parkinson's disease.

LINKS

Ioannou laboratory webpage:

https://ioannoulab.com/

Neuron-Astrocyte Metabolic Coupling Protects against Activity-Induced Fatty Acid Toxicity

https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2819%2930387-3

Protective ApoE variants support neuronal function by effluxing oxidized phospholipids:

https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0896-6273%2825%2900847-5

Glucosylceramide-induced ectosomes propagate pathogenic α-synuclein in Parkinson's disease:

file:///Users/markmattson/Downloads/s41556-026-01871-6%20(1).pdf