Jonathan Milla Cruz
Postdoctoral Fellow
Contact information
Biography
About me
My name is Jonathan Milla Cruz, I’m from Morelos, Mexico. I completed my MSc and PhD in Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) in Mexico city. My PhD thesis was focused on studying the dopaminergic neuromodulation of presynaptic inhibition in the mouse spinal cord. I had the opportunity to join Dr. Whelan’s lab as a postdoctoral associate working on projects involving the developmental study of sensorimotor deficits in a Fragile X mouse model, and studying the networks at the spinal cord involved in the generation of episodic activity.
My research
My research is focused on studying the sensorimotor deficits during development in a Fragile X mouse model by means of electrophysiological recordings and behavioral test. This project aims to determine a time window during development for potential treatment on motor deficits observed in Fragile X syndrome. As part of this research, I’ve validated a walkway system developed by CSMopto facility to automatically record freely moving rodents (Molina et al. 2023), reducing animal stress and experimenter handling. This is being implemented to detect motor deficiencies in freely moving adult Fragile X mice.
BRAIN CREATE program aspirations
Brain CREATE program provided me with the opportunity for travelling in an academic exchange to Drexel University in order to learn techniques that I’m implementing in my current research. This opportunity also allowed me to get in touch with different labs and helped me making social networking which will be highly beneficial for my professional development.
Commercialization
The walkway apparatus is a tool, designed and validated that allows the unsupervised recording of gait in freely moving animals, improving the acquisition and analysis of walkway data while reducing handling and stress for the animals. Another important aspect of our project aims to look at a potential period of time for critical treatment of motor deficits in Fragile X syndrome, in collaboration with professor Ray Turner we’ll test the effects of a compound (tat-conjugated peptide) in alleviating the motor deficits (if observed) in a Fragile X syndrome mouse model during development.