Oxytocin (OXT) is a hypothalamus-derived neuropeptide majorly secreted via the neurohypophysis (posterior pituitary). During social, feeding and reproductive behaviors, OXT is released via synapses both centrally and into the peripheral blood circulation. Reduced hypothalamic OXT content in autism-like mice models and claims of genetic polymorphisms in oxytocin receptor gene of children with social deficits led to the controversial OXT-deficit hypothesis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Thus, investigating the molecular mechanisms that regulate OXT content and release can aid in understanding factors underlying ASD.

At a molecular level, neurohypophyseal OXT synapses-associated glial pituicytes can secrete factors that affect OXT content or release. However, the identity and the role of pituicyte-derived secreted factors that can regulate synaptic OXT are largely unknown. Finally, situated outside the blood-brain barrier (BBB), glial pituicytes are directly exposed to the blood-borne molecules and are highly responsive to physiological challenges to promote synaptic plasticity. But the identity and the role of the pituicyte-derived cues that regulate the plasticity of OXT axonal terminals and OXT neuropeptide content upon challenges are largely unknown.

Our lab combines molecular and advanced light microscopy techniques to study the role of glial pituicytes using zebrafish as vertebrate model organism.

Our lab also developed the zebrafish ligand-receptor atlas, a valuable resource for the zebrafish research community (iScience 2023) and proposed gasocrine signaling and oxygen gasoreceptors (Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2024).


OUR LAB MOTTO
Cha-cha-cha.

OUR LAB FAMOUS QUOTE
“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” - Galileo

OPEN POSITIONS
We are open to curious and persistent students for their bachelor's or master's thesis.

Students at crossroads are welcome to choose Savani as mentor in the UAM WILK mentorship project.

Motivated Postdoctoral candidates eligible to apply for other National or International Postdoctoral fellowships are welcome to contact Savani in advance. (EMBO, EU MSCA)


CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
Postdoc: Dr Hasan Ali (2022-)

Doctoral students:
1. Naveen Nedunchezhian (2022-)
2. Athul Ramesh (2023-)

Lab tech: Sebastian Pęcherz (2023- )

MS thesis students:
1. Justyna Frątczak (2023- )
2. Zuzanna Czarny (2023- ; in collaboration with Prof. Krzysztof Sobczak)

LAB ALUMNI
MS thesis students:
1. Miłosz Chodkowski (Bioinfo thesis 2022-2023 in collaboration with Dr Andrzej Zieleziński. Miłosz is currently a software developer in Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center)
2. Agata Gonicka (Neurobiol. thesis 2022-2023. Agata is currently a Data science working student at Project Eaden, Berlin, Germany)

BS thesis students:
Paula Oklińska & David Kaszuba (2022; Currently a MS student in UAM)

Lab tech:
Emilia Wysocka (2021-2023; Currently a Salsation instructor & a Junior Animal Specialist at the Wielkopolska Centre for Advanced Technologies, Poznan).

ERASMUS students:
1. Ángel Espadas Sanchez (2022)
2. Sinem Bulut (2023)

LAB NEWS
Complete list of lab news and updates.

LAB NEWS - Others
2023.12: Savani's rumblings on academia and depression is online.
2023.12: Savani's Blind men and elephant version of biologists generated using DALL.E-3 is published in AMEM journal.
2022.09: Emilia is a certified Salsation instructor.
2022.08: Emilia's microphotography website is live.
2022.05: Emilia's microphotography art were published by The Institute De Republica in "The Frame of Science" project.

PREPRINTS
Anbalagan S.(2023) Oxygen is an essential gasotransmitter. OSF Preprints doi:10.31219/osf.io/5tksg.

Anbalagan S.(2023) Arguments for gasocrine signaling. OSF Preprints doi:10.31219/osf.io/fe85j.


RESOURCES
GitHub: DanioTalk - An open source tool to map zebrafish protein-based ligand and membrane receptor pairs. 5-min audio summary
GitHub: Zebrafishpapers - Details of Twitter and Mastodon bots that tweets and posts recent zebrafish-related manuscripts.

SOCIAL MEDIA
TwitterX: @Zebrafishgroup | Warning Social media use is correlated to mental health issues.

Youtube
Musical invitations: to preprints.
Behind the paper: Savani's 8-min talk (with subtitles) about why he wrote the Blind men and the elephant manuscript.
Talk: Savani's 15-min talk (with subtitles) about Zebrafish ligand-receptor atlas at the Polish Academy of Science - IBCH: Understand and Describe Life conference in Poznan.

TikTok: Emilia's 20s talk about the power of zebrafish.