Karl Peter Giese
Karl.Giese@kcl.ac.uk
Website
Research Interests
My lab is working on memory mechanisms in health and disease. We are interested in identifying molecular and synaptic mechanisms that underlie formation, storage, retrieval and updating of memory in young and old age. Additionally, we are interested in find out how synapses degenerate in dementia and cause memory loss, and which synaptic changes cause intellectual disability. We are particularly, interested in the role of multi-synapses, synapses which have either more than one input or synapses which have more than one output. Our mechanistic analysis is mainly in mice where we can apply sophisticated molecular manipulations, but we are also interested in cultured neurons including iNeurons from patients with dementia, and in studies of human post-mortem brain.
Most significant discovery
We identified generation of multi-input synapses as a novel memory mechanism. Multi-input synapses are synapses that connect three of more neurons. We found that the generation of multi-input synapses can store memory when long-term potentiation is impaired, such as in old age.
Educational Interests
Memory mechanisms in health and disease
Mechanisms of synaptic dysfunction in dementia and intellectual disability