The Aging Brain Initiative (ABI) is an interdisciplinary effort by MIT focusing on understanding neurodegeneration and discovery efforts to find hallmarks of aging, both in health and disease." "The Alana Down Syndrome Center (ADSC) aims to deepen knowledge about Down syndrome and to improve health, autonomy and inclusion of people with this genetic condition." "The ABI and the ADSC have joined forces for this year's symposium to highlight how aging-related changes to the brain overlap with neurological aspects of Down syndrome. Our hope is to encourage greater collaboration between the brain aging and Down syndrome research communities.

The Aging Brain Initiative (ABI) is an interdisciplinary effort by MIT focusing on understanding neurodegeneration and discovery efforts to find hallmarks of aging, both in health and disease." "The Alana Down Syndrome Center (ADSC) aims to deepen knowledge about Down syndrome and to improve health, autonomy and inclusion of people with this genetic condition." "The ABI and the ADSC have joined forces for this year's symposium to highlight how aging-related changes to the brain overlap with neurological aspects of Down syndrome. Our hope is to encourage greater collaboration between the brain aging and Down syndrome research communities.

Broadly, the Mauro Costa-Mattioli laboratory (The MCM Lab) encompasses two complementary lines of research. The first one, more traditional but very important, aims at unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying memory formation (e.g., using state-of-the-art molecular and cell-specific genetic approaches). Learning and memory disorders can strike the brain during development (e.g., Autism Spectrum Disorders and Down Syndrome), as well as during adulthood (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease). We are interested in understanding the specific circuits and molecular pathways that are primarily targeted in these disorders and how they can be restored. To tackle these questions, we use a multidisciplinary, convergent and cross-species approach that combines mouse and fly genetics, molecular biology, electrophysiology, stem cell biology, optogenetics and behavioral techniques. The second line of research, more recent and relatively unexplored, is focused on understanding how gut microbes control CNS driven-behavior and brain function. Our recent discoveries, that microbes in the gut could modulate brain function and behavior in a very powerful way, have added a whole new dimension to the classic view of how complex behaviors are controlled. The unexpected findings have opened new avenues of study for us and are currently driving my lab to answer a host of new and very interesting questions: - What are the gut microbes (and metabolites) that regulate CNS-driven behaviors? Would it be possible to develop an unbiased screening method to identify specific microbes that regulate different behaviors? - If this is the case, can we identify how members of the gut microbiome (and their metabolites) mechanistically influence brain function? - What is the communication channel between the gut microbiota and the brain? Do different gut microbes use different ways to interact with the brain? - Could disruption of the gut microbial ecology cause neurodevelopmental dysfunction? If so, what is the impact of disruption in young and adult animals? - More importantly, could specific restoration of selected bacterial strains (new generation probiotics) represent a novel therapeutic approach for the targeted treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders? - Finally, can we develop microbiota-directed therapeutic foods to repair brain dysfunction in a variety of neurological disorders?

Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of very heterogeneous diseases in which the development of the central nervous system is defective. In neurodevelopmental disorders defective brain development translates into aberrant brain function, which can manifest for example as impaired learning, motor function, or social interaction. Despites years of investigation in animal models and clinical research on neurodevelopmental disorders, there are currently no approved pharmacological treatments for core symptoms of the vast majority of them. Here, I will share some recent work (but also some apprehensions) of our laboratory on the development of strategies for the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders, with a focus on Down syndrome.