Omer Ali Bayraktar

I am fascinated by the cellular complexity of the brain. I am interested in using large-scale approaches to map brain cell types, to identify how glial cells shape neuronal circuits and to discover cellular pathways affected in neurodevelopmental disorders. My past research has largely focused on nervous system cellular diversity and development. My graduate studies with Dr. Chris Doe were geared towards modeling developmental mechanisms that diversify neuronal and glial progenitors in Drosophila. This work led to the identification of new temporal patterning mechanisms that expand neural cell type diversity. In my postdoctoral studies Dr. David Rowitch, I focused on the diversity of astroglial cells in the brain. I developed a high-content in situ transcriptomic pipeline for mapping large tissue areas. I used this approach to discover the heterogeneity of astroglial cells across the layers and areas of the mammalian cerebral cortex. Surprisingly, I identified that astrocyte layer patterns diverge from classical neuronal laminae, revealing the complex neuroglial architecture of the cerebral cortex