Dr. Kärt Mätlik (Varendi) is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Mary E. Hatten’s Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology at The Rockefeller University. Using mouse cerebellar granule cells as a model, she is investigating the epigenetic mechanisms that control gene expression and chromatin organization during neuronal development and maturation in vivo.
Dr. Mätlik obtained her B.Sc in genetic engineering at the University of Tartu, Estonia. She then continued her M.Sc studies in neuroscience at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where she joined the laboratory of Dr. Jaan-Olle Andressoo to investigate the neuroprotective mechanisms of dietary restriction in stroke. In her Ph.D studies, Dr. Mätlik continued her research in Dr. Andressoo’s lab, where she studied how fine-tuning of gene expression levels regulates neural circuit formation and function in mammalian central nervous system. This work led to an unexpected discovery on the role of endogenous neurotrophic factor GDNF on midbrain dopamine system plasticity with implications in schizophrenia research.
