astronomy

Margarita Behrens

Margarita Behrens is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Margarita Behrens rather than just read about it. In short: Margarita Behrens is a neuroscientist and biochemist. She is currently an associate professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where her lab studies the impact of oxidative stress on the post-natal brain through probing the biology of fast-spiking parvalbumin interneurons in models of schizophrenia.

Margarita Behrens — illustration

Key takeaways

Margarita Behrens belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Margarita Behrens to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Margarita Behrens from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Margarita Behrens is a neuroscientist and biochemist. She is currently an associate professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where her lab studies the impact of oxidative stress on the post-natal brain through probing the biology of fast-spiking parvalbumin interneurons in models of schizophrenia.

Early life and education Behrens completed her master's degree at the University of Chile in biochemistry and then continued to the Autonoma University in Madrid to conduct a PhD in molecular biology and biochemistry. Behrens then completed her post-doctoral work at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2009, Behrens began working as a staff scientist as the Salk Institute where she led a group of researchers within Terry Sejnowski's computational neuroscience laboratory studying the circuitry implicated in schizophrenia in rodent models.

Career and research In 2018, the Salk Institute appointed Behrens as Research Professor, where she remains the first and only faculty member to hold this title. Her lab currently explores how environmental influences shape prefrontal cortical circuit development as a means to understand why some individuals might progress towards psychiatric illness while others do not. In an effort to dissect prefrontal cortical neurons in development, Behrens' lab uncovers novel subtypes of neurons through probing their unique DNA methylation patterns. Using single-nucleus sequencing technologies, Behrens has helped produce a novel dataset mapping the methylomes of both rodent and human prefrontal cortical neurons. This work has increased our knowledge of the diversity of cell types which provides an important platform for other neuroscientists to ask deeper questions about neural development in both health and disease. Behrens is now using the methylome dataset to ask translational question about how maternal environment may impact methylation in certain subtypes of neurons and how this may give rise to disease.

Selected publications Source:

Lavery, Laura A.; Ure, Kerstin; Wan, Ying-Wooi; Luo, Chongyuan; Trostle, Alexander J.; Wang, Wei; Jin, Haijing; Lopez, Joanna; Lucero, Jacinta; Durham, Mark A.; Castanon, Rosa; Nery, Joseph R.; Liu, Zhandong; Goodell, Margaret; Ecker, Joseph R.; Behrens, M Margarita; Zoghbi, Huda Y. (2020). "Losing Dnmt3a dependent methylation in inhibitory neurons impairs neural function by a mechanism impacting Rett syndrome". eLife. 9. doi:10.7554/eLife.52981. PMC 7065908. PMID 32159514. Zhu, Chenxu; Yu, Miao; Huang, Hui; Juric, Ivan; Abnousi, Armen; Hu, Rong; Lucero, Jacinta; Behrens, M. Margarita; Hu, Ming; Ren, Bing (2019). "An ultra high-throughput method for single-cell joint analysis of open chromatin and transcriptome". Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. 26 (11): 1063–1070. doi:10.1038/s41594-019-0323-x. PMC 7231560. PMID 31695190. Amodeo, Dionisio A.; Lai, Chi-Yu; Hassan, Omron; Mukamel, Eran A.; Behrens, M. Margarita; Powell, Susan B. (2019). "Maternal immune activation impairs cognitive flexibility and alters transcription in frontal cortex". Neurobiology of Disease. 125: 211–218. doi:10.1016/j.nbd.2019.01.025. PMC 6474674. PMID 30716470. Luo, Chongyuan; Rivkin, Angeline; Zhou, Jingtian; Sandoval, Justin P.; Kurihara, Laurie; Lucero, Jacinta; Castanon, Rosa; Nery, Joseph R.; Pinto-Duarte, António; Bui, Brian; Fitzpatrick, Conor; o'Connor, Carolyn; Ruga, Seth; Van Eden, Marc E.; Davis, David A.; Mash, Deborah C.; Behrens, M. Margarita; Ecker, Joseph R. (2018). "Robust single-cell DNA methylome profiling with SNMC-seq2". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 3824. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.3824L. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06355-2. PMC 6147798. PMID 30237449. Luo, Chongyuan; Keown, Christopher L.; Kurihara, Laurie; Zhou, Jingtian; He, Yupeng; Li, Junhao; Castanon, Rosa; Lucero, Jacinta; Nery, Joseph R.; Sandoval, Justin P.; Bui, Brian; Sejnowski, Terrence J.; Harkins, Timothy T.; Mukamel, Eran A.; Behrens, M. Margarita; Ecker, Joseph R. (2017). "Single-cell methylomes identify neuronal subtypes and regulatory elements in mammalian cortex". Science. 357 (6351): 600–604. Bibcode:2017Sci...357..600L. doi:10.1126/science.aan3351. PMC 5570439. PMID 28798132. Khan, Asma; De Jong, Loek A.W.; Kamenski, Mary E.; Higa, Kerin K.; Lucero, Jacinta D.; Young, Jared W.; Behrens, M. Margarita; Powell, Susan B. (2017). "Adolescent GBR12909 exposure induces oxidative stress, disrupts parvalbumin-positive interneurons, and leads to hyperactivity and impulsivity in adult mice". Neuroscience. 345: 166–175. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.11.022. PMC 5316310. PMID 27890827. Jadi, Monika P.; Behrens, M. Margarita; Sejnowski, Terrence J. (2016). "Abnormal Gamma Oscillations in N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Hypofunction Models of Schizophrenia". Biological Psychiatry. 79 (9): 716–726. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.07.005. PMC 4720598. PMID 26281716. Wang, Xin; Pinto-Duarte, António; Behrens, M. Margarita; Zhou, Xianjin; Sejnowski, Terrence J. (2015). "Characterization of spatio-temporal epidural event-related potentials for mouse models of psychiatric disorders". Scientific Reports. 5 14964. Bibcode:2015NatSR...514964W. doi:10.1038/srep14964. PMC 4602219. PMID 26459883. Barnes, S. A.; Pinto-Duarte, A.; Kappe, A.; Zembrzycki, A.; Metzler, A.; Mukamel, E. A.; Lucero, J.; Wang, X.; Sejnowski, T. J.; Markou, A.; Behrens, M. M. (2015). "Disruption of mGluR5 in parvalbumin-positive interneurons induces core features of neurodevelopmental disorders". Molecular Psychiatry. 20 (10): 1161–1172. doi:10.1038/mp.2015.113. PMC 4583365. PMID 26260494. Powell, Susan B.; Khan, Asma; Young, Jared W.; Scott, Christine N.; Buell, Mahalah R.; Caldwell, Sorana; Tsan, Elisa; De Jong, Loek A.W.; Acheson, Dean T.; Lucero, Jacinta; Geyer, Mark A.; Behrens, M. Margarita (2015). "Early Adolescent Emergence of Reversal Learning Impairments in Isolation-Reared Rats". Developmental Neuroscience. 37 (3): 253–262. doi:10.1159/000430091. PMC 4644772. PMID 26022788.

Selected awards 2019 NIH Brain Initiative Award 2019 Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to Expand Human Cell Atlas FEBS predoctoral Fellowship Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Fellowship EMBO fellowship NARSAD Young Investigator Award Daniel X. Freedman Award

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Margarita Behrens

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Margarita Behrens claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Margarita Behrens before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Margarita Behrens ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Margarita Behrens

In research: Margarita Behrens appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Margarita Behrens in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Margarita Behrens is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Autonomous University of Madrid alumni, Chilean biochemists, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Margarita Behrens outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Margarita Behrens in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Margarita Behrens means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Margarita Behrens out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Margarita Behrens in simple terms?

Why does Margarita Behrens matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Margarita Behrens?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Margarita Behrens.