New Associate Professor in Nykjær Lab
From 1 September 2025, Andrea Moreno will start as a new Associate Professor in Anders Nykjær Lab. Since 2017 she has been part of Sadegh Nabavis' Lab first as a postdoc and later as an assistant professor in the MBG department, where her research focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive natural (non–disease related) forgetting.
In Anders Nykjær Lab her work will centre on the receptor SORCS3. This gene has been genetically linked to PTSD and is a top risk factor across several neuropsychiatric conditions involving cognitive dysfunction. Using genetic models (full and conditional knockouts), combined with optogenetics, chemogenetics, in vivo electrophysiology, and miniscope imaging, we will investigate how SORCS3 contributes to forgetting.
Their aim is to determine whether SORCS3 mediates forgetting through synaptic plasticity mechanisms such as depotentiation—the weakening of strengthened synaptic connections. We will also characterize local network changes induced by the absence of SORCS3 and explore how this receptor supports memory flexibility.
Ultimately, this work seeks to uncover how SORCS3-expressing memory cells interact with surrounding neurons and glia to regulate forgetting, and how disruptions in this process may contribute to neuropsychiatric disease.