Bill Tyler

Dr. Tyler’s research focuses on elucidating the cell and molecular mechanisms that generate neuronal diversity in the neocortex.  Progress in these endeavors has been advanced by employing a multidisciplinary approach; combining novel in vivo fate mapping, electrophysiology, and cutting edge time-lapse imaging techniques.  Our recent work has shown that different classes of neural stem and progenitor cells contemporaneously give rise to excitatory neurons with distinct morphological and electrophysiological properties.  These studies suggest that precursor heterogeneity plays a foundational role in the generation of intra-laminar neuronal diversity in the neocortex.  We are continuing this work using single-cell gene expression profiling, gain- and loss-of-function studies, as well as developing new molecular tools to further refine our ability to fate map individual lineages of neurons.