Keshav Balaji Suresh, PhD
2025 Leon Levy Scholar in Neuroscience
Columbia University, The Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute
Sub-disciplinary Category
Systems Neuroscience
Previous Positions
- BS, University of California, Irvine
- PhD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Dr. Joshua E. Burda, Dr. Simon R.V. Knott)
Bio
Dr. Keshav B. Suresh received a BS in Neuroscience and a minor in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Irvine. He then began his PhD at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in the labs of Dr. Joshua E. Burda and Dr. Simon R.V. Knott. With support from a NINDS F31 fellowship, his dissertation research elucidated mechanisms underlying the formation and consequences of different astrocyte states across mouse models of disease and injury. Notably, he identified a novel, evolutionarily conserved, astrocyte subtype restricted to degenerating white matter tracts that governs recovery after spinal cord injury. For his postdoctoral research he became increasingly interested in understanding how astrocytes modulate neural circuits to shape behavior. As a Leon Levy Fellow in Dr. Vikram Gadagkar’s lab at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute he will address this question using the natural and complex motor behavior of birdsong.
Research Summary
Defining the function of basal ganglia astrocytes in a context-dependent motor skill.
Technical Overview
We constantly need to modify our actions based on our surroundings. For example, a musician may play their instrument differently when they are practicing alone versus when they perform to an audience. Within the brain, the striatum (part of the basal ganglia) receives convergent neural inputs and neuromodulator signals to execute motor behavior. However, it remains unknown how striatal circuits are reconfigured for different priorities depending on external context. Astrocytes have recently emerged as behaviorally consequential regulators of neural circuits via their responsiveness to neuromodulators, raising the possibility that they may be important in context-dependent behaviors. The male zebra finch’s courtship song is a learned, complex motor skill that displays considerable context-dependent differences. A male will practice a more variable song when he is alone but will perform the most stereotyped song he can to a female. Thus, zebra finches provide a unique opportunity to study neural mechanisms underlying a context-dependent motor skill. By performing the first-ever experiments on astrocytes in singing birds, I will answer long-standing questions regarding their function in neural circuits and behavior. Results from this study may have implications for our understanding of movement disorders where voluntary motor control is lost, such Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease.