Edmund Au Ph.D.

Dr. Au earned his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, where his thesis work focused on identifying paracrine mechanisms that mediate spinal circuit repair following cell transplantation. This experience inspired his career-long interest in applying reductionist approaches to tackle complex questions in neurobiology. For his postdoctoral training, he joined the lab of Gord Fishell at New York University to study cell lineage specification in the subpallium, an embryonic progenitor domain that produces many neuronal populations, including cortical interneurons. To do so, he developed an in vitro model system in which cortical interneuron lineages are produced from embryonic stem cells, allowing individual cell fate determinants to be tested systematically. In a second postdoc project, he studied the role of a neuropsychiatric disease risk gene (CNTNAP4). He found that CNTNAP4 acts as a synaptic organizer for two neuronal populations: a subclass of cortical interneuron (basket cells) as well as in midbrain dopaminergic neurons.

He was then appointed Assistant Professor at Columbia University Medical Center in the Department of Pathology & Cell Biology, where his group focused on three aspects of brain circuit assembly: cell lineage specification, cell migration, and the establishment of synaptic connections. His group identified Wnt-Ryk signaling as a key component in regulating the production of the two main subclasses of cortical interneurons (parvalbumin vs. somatostatin). They also identified a transcriptional regulator for projection neuron versus interneuron cell identity (St18) and a paracrine signaling pathway that regulates interneuron maturation and migration acting through SerpinE1 and SPARC. More recently, the Au lab has focused on the third aspect of circuit assembly: synapses. Here, we have developed a computer vision-based approach for analyzing cortical interneuron synapses at a population level.

In 2025, Dr. Au joined the Burke Neurological Institute to continue developing his approach to studying cortical interneuron synapses in learning and memory as well as in the context of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.