Janine Kwapis, PhD

Improving cognitive flexibility in old age by fixing the transcriptome within memory cells

Aging is accompanied by cognitive decline, including drastic impairments in memory. Little is understood about age-related impairments in memory updating, as most laboratory paradigms focus on initial memory formation. Using her own novel memory updating task, Dr. Kwapis' lab recently discovered that aging impairs memory co-allocation (the process of storing linked memories in overlapping neuronal ensembles), possibly due to altered transcription within memory-storing neurons. Here, she will test the hypothesis that aging disrupts the transcriptome within memory-storing neuronal ensembles, preventing successful memory updating in old mice. Using behavior, single cell and spatial transcriptomics, and viral cell tagging, her lab aims to determine when aging begins to affect memory updating and co-allocation, assess how aging disrupts transcription within memory-storing cells, and test whether we can improve these processes by inhibiting a key cognition-related epigenetic enzyme. Broadly, this work will identify basic biological mechanisms underlying age-related memory updating impairments, a critically understudied aspect of aging.