Project description
Unravelling the development and evolution of the cerebellum in Homo sapiens
The cerebellum is crucial for motor control as well as higher cognitive functions, including language. However, its basic development and evolution in the human species remain underexplored. The ERC-funded hCerebEvol project seeks to understand how human-specific genetic changes have shaped cerebellum development and function compared to other primate species. Researchers will compare key aspects of the cerebellum development and structure across species to identify the specificities of humans. They will investigate novel evolutionary molecular mechanisms acting in the human cerebellum from the cell to behavioural levels. Project findings have the potential to reveal new insights into human cerebellar evolution and development. Importantly, they will improve our understanding of brain development and function, potentially identifying human-specific sensitivities to brain disorders.
Objective
Speciation involves the emergence of new behavioural features that rely on the evolution of neural circuits. The human species displays higher cognitive features which have been linked in part to the evolution of the cerebral cortex, but the involvement of the other brain regions, such as the cerebellum, remains largely unexplored. The human cerebellum displays divergent features at the anatomical, functional, and behavioural levels. It is associated with both higher cognitive functions and cognitive disorders. However, the properties of human cerebellar cells & circuits have not been compared with those of other species, including non-human primates. This knowledge gap hinders our understanding of human brain evolution. Here, I aim to identify and functionally study the impact of human genomic novelties on cerebellum development and function, focusing on neuronal and & circuit levels. I will first investigate the role of a novel human molecular pathway in the cerebellum, based on the hominid transmembrane receptor family LRRC37, which I have recently identified. I will identify the cellular distribution, molecular partners, and function of LRRC37 receptors in cerebellar neurons using three approaches: cross-species tissue comparison, gain-of-function in vivo in the mouse cerebellum, and human models based on pluripotent stem cells. In parallel, I will identify new molecular novelties acting in human cerebellar cells, focusing on human gene duplicates and differentially expressed genes, and link them to divergent cerebellar properties. I will define the spatio-temporal expression patterns of these genes, followed by gain/loss-of-function in the mouse cerebellum and in human cerebellar neurons to study their function. Together, hCerebEvol will uncover entirely new aspects of human cerebellar evolution that will improve our understanding of brain development and function, and may lead to the identification of human-specific sensitivity to brain disorders.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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75794 Paris
France
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