There’s an old piece of advice: Surround yourself with smart people. It’s a strategy that Chris Dulla, Annetta and Gustav Grisard Professor of Neuroscience, has embraced since being tapped to chair the Department of Neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine in 2023.

By collaborating with leading scientists across the university, as well as with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, Dulla is bringing some of the best minds at Tufts to bear on the questions his lab explores. The main goals of the Dulla Lab at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences are to understand what causes epilepsy and to develop new treatments for the disease. 

In addition, these collaborations have strengthened the integration of research efforts between the School of Medicine and Tufts Medical Center and expanded opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in the neuroscience program.

Neurotransmission and Glutamate

Glutamate is the main neurotransmitter in the brain, through which brain cells called neurons communicate to activate each other. They communicate through synapses, or tiny gaps between nerve cells. Dulla’s lab investigates how that system helps the brain encode information and participate in processes like learning and memory.

“We discovered in the last few years that another type of cell in the brain, an astrocyte, helps provide metabolic and structural support to neurons and plays a really big role in controlling that kind of synaptic transmission,” he said.

That finding helped him and other researchers in his lab develop new tools to image the brain and look at how the system changes when the brain ages or is injured. 

“Ultimately, we're interested in understanding how neurons and astrocytes communicate via glutamate to work together and provide a stable environment for the brain.”

Epilepsy and Gene Therapy

Many things can cause epilepsy, such as genetics, traumatic brain injury, and strokes. Dulla said this makes epilepsy “a window into how the brain functions and what can make the brain dysfunction.”

He is collaborating on a research project with Madeline Oudin, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Engineering, to examine a gene called SCN8A, which, if mutated, is associated with early life epilepsy. Oudin’s daughter has this type of epilepsy, and she and Dulla have been working to understand what this mutation does and how it affects brain function in mice. They hope to develop therapies to correct the mutation.

“What we're trying to do now is use gene therapy to repair the mutated gene, prevent epilepsy, and improve the quality of life for patients with SCN8A-associated epilepsy.” Dulla said.

Connecting with Psychiatry 

A few years ago, Dulla began collaborating with Brent Forester, the Dr. Frances S. Arkin Chair of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, to align the long-term research goals of Forester’s clinical department with Dulla’s basic science department. One of their areas of focus is dementia.

“In addition to memory problems, dementia also can cause behavioral and psychiatric issues, like aggression or depression,” Dulla said. “In my lab, we use basic science to investigate why aggression and depression might come with changes in memory and aging, which is a reality that Dr. Forrester sees in his memory clinic at Tufts Medical Center.”

Another success of that collaboration, Dulla said, was the hiring of Emily Newman, the Ghahreman Khodadad Professor in Neuroscience at the School of Medicine, who employs innovative AI-based video analysis tools to measure and record behavior in new ways. He hopes that her expertise will allow them to measure and record abnormal or pathological aggression.

Dulla and Forester also launched a Translational Neuroscience Research Day, which brings together the clinical departments that work on neuroscience, including psychiatry, neurology, ophthalmology, and neurosurgery. The neuroscientists have an opportunity to learn what their clinical counterparts are doing, which generates excitement about using basic science tools to address complex questions in clinical science.