Sara Hijazi

2014-2020: PhD at the Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology department (Vrije University) under the supervision of Professor Guus Smit and Professor Ronald van Kesteren as part of the CognitionNet European consortium.

• My main project aimed at investigating PV+ neuron dysfunction in an Alzheimer’s disease (AD) model. My data revealed an early and transient hyperexcitable phenotype in PV+ neurons in the hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice, which coincided with the earliest sign of memory deficits in these mice.

2020-2022: Post-doctoral researcher in Professor Steven Kushner’s lab at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam

• My main project was focused on investigating the link between PV+ neuron myelination and self-inhibitory transmission. I used the cuprizone model of demyelination and the Shiverer mouse model to investigate how myelin influences PV+ neuron maturation and autaptic neurotransmission.
• I was also part of the De Vrij lab where my main responsibilities involved whole-cell patch clamp recordings from human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) neurons in order to investigate the molecular and cellular mechanisms of psychiatric genetic risk.

2022-2024: Blaschko fellow in the Viney group (Department of Pharmacology and Linacre College, University of Oxford). 

2024-2026: UKRI Horizon MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow

My current projects include:

• Defining how GABAergic inhibition coordinates the firing and tuning of head direction cell types across the anterodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (ADn)
• Examine the different subpopulations of neurons within the ADn 
• Exploring the effect of tau pathology on spatial memory and networks in vivo
• Investigating whether specific impairments in the ADn could explain cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease