Tabrez Siddiqui

Biography

Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Manitoba (2014-present) Principal Investigator, Neuroscience Research Program, Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine, Health Sciences Centre (2014-present) Research Associate, Department of Psychiatry and Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia (2012 – 2014) Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Psychiatry and Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia (2007 – 2012) Ph.D., Department of Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, International Max Planck Research School and Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany (2003 - 2006) M.Sc.Molecular Biology, International Max Planck Research School and Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany (2001 - 2003) B.Sc. Department of Biochemistry, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India (1997-2000)

Research Interest

The Siddiqui laboratory is interested in learning how nerve cell connections known as “synapses” form and function in the developing and adult brain. Synapses are the fundamental units for information processing in the brain. Evidence from genetic studies, animal models and post-mortem human tissue indicate impairment of synapse development and synaptic dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Synapses undergo morphological and functional changes in response to neural activity, a phenomenon known as plasticity. These experience-dependent plastic changes at synapses are critical for cognitive processes including learning and memory. Our work focusses on the roles of cell adhesion and scaffolding molecules in the development, maintenance and plasticity of synapses and how these processes can be regulated in health and disease. We are particularly interested in understanding how specific neural circuits essential for learning and memory form and function in the brain. To address our questions, we combine multiple interdisciplinary methods ranging from biochemical and biophysical approaches to cellular, molecular and genetic studies, particularly regional and temporal manipulation of synaptic genes in mice brains. We are also developing our capabilities in behavioral studies in mouse models of autism and schizophrenia.