Elizabeth Quinlan
Professor
Contact
Email: equinlan@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.7396
Lab: 301.405.7222
Office Address: 1110 Bioscience Research Building
Graduate Program Affiliations
Current Appointments at UMD
Research Interests
The goal of my research is to understand how experience differentially influences the juvenile versus adult mammalian brain. A primary focus is the role of experience in the regulation of the visual system. Pioneering work in the mammalian visual system demonstrated a significant decline in experience-dependent synaptic plasticity over the course of postnatal development. One of the severe consequences of the loss of experience-dependent synaptic plasticity is the inability to recover from form-deprivation amblyopia (Amblyopia ex anopsia) caused a unilateral congenital cataract. If untreated, neurons in the binocular cortex become dominated by the unaffected eye, and resistant to recovery by removal of the cataract. Recently we have developed a method (binocular visual deprivation through dark exposure) that allows for the recovery from severe amblyopia in rodents, even when a monocular occlusion is initiated immediately at eye opening and continues until adulthood. This work was recognized with the Advancement of Science Award by the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association. Currently, we use a multidisciplinary analysis that includes electrophysiology, opto- and chemogenetics, morphomtery and visual psychophysics, to characterize the functional consequences, and the molecular mechanisms, by which dark exposure promotes the recovery from chronic deprivation amblyopia.
Representative Publications
Education
Contact
Email: equinlan@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.7396
Lab: 301.405.7222
Office Address: 1110 Bioscience Research Building
Graduate Program Affiliations
- Neuroscience & Cognitive Science (NACS)
- BISI - BISI-Physiological Systems (PSYS)
- BISI - BISI-Molecular & Cellular Biology (MOCB)
Current Appointments at UMD
- Co-Director; Brain and Behavior Initiative (BBI)
- Co-Director; MPower Initiative on Brain Health and Human Performance
Research Interests
The goal of my research is to understand how experience differentially influences the juvenile versus adult mammalian brain. A primary focus is the role of experience in the regulation of the visual system. Pioneering work in the mammalian visual system demonstrated a significant decline in experience-dependent synaptic plasticity over the course of postnatal development. One of the severe consequences of the loss of experience-dependent synaptic plasticity is the inability to recover from form-deprivation amblyopia (Amblyopia ex anopsia) caused a unilateral congenital cataract. If untreated, neurons in the binocular cortex become dominated by the unaffected eye, and resistant to recovery by removal of the cataract. Recently we have developed a method (binocular visual deprivation through dark exposure) that allows for the recovery from severe amblyopia in rodents, even when a monocular occlusion is initiated immediately at eye opening and continues until adulthood. This work was recognized with the Advancement of Science Award by the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association. Currently, we use a multidisciplinary analysis that includes electrophysiology, opto- and chemogenetics, morphomtery and visual psychophysics, to characterize the functional consequences, and the molecular mechanisms, by which dark exposure promotes the recovery from chronic deprivation amblyopia.
Representative Publications
- Murase S, Liu J, Winkowski D, Kanold PO and Quinlan EM (2019) Homeostatic regulation of perisynaptic MMP9 activity in the amblyopic visual cortex. Elife; 8. pii: e52503. doi: 10.7554/eLife.52503. PMID:31868167. pdf
- Sengupta DC, Lantz CL, Rumi MAK, Quinlan EM (2019) 17α Estradiol promotes plasticity of spared inputs in the adult amblyopic visual cortex. Sci Rep. 9:19040. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55158-y. PMID: 31836739. pdf
- Hensch TK, Quinlan EM. (2018) Critical periods in amblyopia.Vis Neurosci. 2018 doi: 10.1017/S0952523817000219. Review. pdf
- Bridi MCD, de Pasquale R, Lantz CL, Gu Y, Borrell A, Choi SY, He K, Tran T, Hong SZ, Dykman A, Lee HK, Quinlan EM, Kirkwood A. (2018). Two distinct mechanisms from experience-dependent homeostasis. Nat Neurosci. May 14. doi: 10.1038/s41593-018-0150-0. pdf
- Murase S, Lantz CL, Quinlan EM. (2017) Light reintroduction after dark exposure reactivates plasticity in adults via perisynaptic activation of MMP-9. Elife. 2017 Sep 6;6. pii: e27345. doi: 10.7554/eLife.27345. pdf
- Gu Y, Tran T, Murase S, Borrell A, Kirkwood A, Quinlan EM. (2016) Neuregulin-Dependent Regulation of Fast-Spiking Interneuron Excitability Controls the Timing of the Critical Period. J Neurosci. 2016 Oct 5;36(40):10285-10295. pdf
- Eaton NC, Sheehan HM, Quinlan EM. (2016) Optimization of visual training for full recovery from severe amblyopia in adults. Learn Mem. 2016 Jan 19;23(2):99-103. doi: 10.1101/lm.040295.115. pdf
- Gu Y, Huang S, Chang MC, Worley P, Kirkwood A, Quinlan EM. (2013) Obligatory role for the immediate early gene NARP in critical period plasticity. Neuron. 2013 Jul 24;79(2):335-46. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.05.016. pdf
- Montey, K.L. and Quinlan, E.M. (2011) Recovery from chronic monocular deprivation following reactivation of thalamocortical plasticity by dark exposure. Nat. Commun. 2:317 doi: 10.1038/ ncomms1312. pdf
Education
- Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, 1993
- Post-doc, University of Virginia, 1993-1996
- Post-doc, Brown University, 1996-2000