Jaworski Lab
Principal Investigator: Alexander Jaworski
Institution: Brown University (Providence, RI)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: ✅ Accepting PhD Students ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Connectivity between neurons as part of neural networks governs information flow through the nervous system and therefore shapes behavioral output. Guidance of axon to their correct targets is a key step in neural circuit assembly during embryonic development, and understanding this process is critical, as neuronal miswiring can cause circuit dysfunction and disease. We report identification of a novel axon guidance cue, WFIKKN2, as a ligand for several DCC family receptors and propose to investigate the biochemical nature of these signaling complexes and their functions in neuronal wiring. DCC is a receptor for the attractive axon guidance cue Netrin- 1, and this ligand-receptor pair shapes neuronal connectivity in organisms as diverse as nematodes and humans. In vertebrates, the DCC family comprises five members, and Netrins can bind two of these – DCC and Neogenin. Three additional family members – Punc, Nope, and Protogenin – have diverged considerable over the course of evolution, do not bind Netrins, and their functions in axon guidance have remained elusive. We found that the secreted multi-domain protein WFIKKN2 binds Punc, Nope, and Protogenin, but…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01NS123290-05: Axon guidance through the bifunctional cue WFIKKN2 and its receptors (2026)
- 1R21NS151664-01: Gene-regulatory mechanisms of stepwise axon pathfinding (2026)
- 5R01NS123290-04: Axon guidance through the bifunctional cue WFIKKN2 and its receptors (2025)
- 5R01NS123290-03: Axon guidance through the bifunctional cue WFIKKN2 and its receptors (2024)
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