Draft:Gwyneth M. Card

Gwyneth M. Card
Nationality	American
Academic work
Discipline	Neuroscience
Sub-discipline	Behavioral neuroscience Systems neuroscience Bioengineering
Institutions	Columbia University Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus

Dr. Gwyneth M. Card is an American neuroscientist. She serves as associate professor of neuroscience at Columbia University, a principal investigator at Columbia’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Previously, she was a group leader at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus from 2010 to 2022.

Card's research involves her interest in neural mechanisms, specifically the mechanisms that lead to the behavioral choices of flies. Her team studies the escape behavior of Drosophila (fly species) using high-resolution behavioral quantification with genetic, electrophysiological, and functional imaging techniques. The goal of their study is to learn more about the neural processes and to identify which neurons are involved when a fly makes the choice to flee.

During a research interview, Card asked, “our bodies are capable of so many different actions, so how is it that we determine which one to take at any point in time?”

Life and career

Early years

Gwyneth Card’s fascination with the brain started in her high school years. One day during her AP Psychology class, she saw squirrels running and jumping around outside the window. Her attention was completely absorbed on these rodents that seemed to move “in these cute little parabola shapes.” She developed an interest in discovering why animals move in their unique patterns and how they do it. After graduating from high school, Card became an undergraduate at Harvard. She joined her biomechanics professor on a research expedition to Australia where she studied kangaroos and their distinct hopping behavior.

Card’s transition to fruit flies and neuroscience began when she was earning her master’s degree at the University of Cambridge. At the university, she learned how to attach superfine electrodes on individual fly brain cells. Whenever a neuron fired, an electrode would detect the cell’s electrochemical signals and cause the speaker to produce tick sounds. To Card, this experience was revolutionary. She talks about how “the first time you hear what a neuron sounds like, it’s mind blowing.”

During her graduate years at Caltech in Michael Dickinson’s lab, Card studied insects’ escape behaviors. She learned how to listen on the entire neurobiological pathway of these flies from the eye’s sensory input to signal-processing in the brain to the activity of neurons that control muscle cells.

After finishing her PhD at Caltech, Card came to HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus. At Janelia, the Card Lab researched the neural circuitry that leads to the actions that flies choose. After Janelia group leaders complete a 10-year term, they can apply to the HHMI Investigator program. So, after being a group leader at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus from 2010 to 2022, Card transferred into the HHMI’s Investigator community, which has provided her with a network of around 270 scientists located at more than 60 U.S. institutions.

Card is currently a principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and studies the sensory, motor and brain cells that lead to every fruit fly. According to Card, "fruit flies basically have the same parts that we and other animals do: muscles, tendons, joints, limbs and brains, but they provide a depth of access to information that would not be possible with something like a human or other mammal.” She is researching these fruit flies to discover the universal principles about movement that can apply to not only insects but people too.

At the Zuckerman Institute, recent advancements in electron microscopy and computer-aided tracing capabilities have created the capability to create connectomes, which are the maps of all the chemical synaptic connections between neurons in a brain. Connectomes are available for multiple species, even the fly brain and ventral nerve cord. These maps help scientists see a detailed wiring structure of the brain. Card has used these connectomes with genetic, electrophysiological, and behavioral experiments to understand how sensory signals across the nervous system are translated into behaviors. Although connectomes are crucial to understanding the neural circuitry of the fly, a wider knowledge of natural fly behaviors is still needed.

On November 1, 2023, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Brain Insight Lecture series took place at Columbia University’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. During the lecture, called "From Mind to Motion: How the Brain Directs Behaviors," Dr. Card discussed her current research on animal movements and their choices using fruit fly models.

Research

Card’s primary research interest centers around the behavioral and systems neuroscience of non-human models.

Publications

Source

• A searchable image resource of Drosophila GAL4 driver expression patterns with single neuron resolution. Meissner GW, Nern A, Dorman Z, DePasquale GM, Forster K, Gibney T, Hausenfluck JH, He Y, Iyer NA, Jeter J, Johnson L, Johnston RM, Lee K, Melton B, Yarbrough B, Zugates CT, Clements J, Goina C, Otsuna H, Rokicki K, Svirskas RR, Aso Y, Card GM, Dickson BJ, Ehrhardt E, Goldammer J, Ito M, Kainmueller D, Korff W, Mais L, Minegishi R, Namiki S, Rubin GM, Sterne GR, Wolff T, Malkesman O; FlyLight Project Team. Elife. 2023 Feb 23;12:e80660.
• Synaptic gradients transform object location to action. Dombrovski M, Peek MY, Park JY, Vaccari A, Sumathipala M, Morrow C, Breads P, Zhao A, Kurmangaliyev YZ, Sanfilippo P, Rehan A, Polsky J, Alghailani S, Tenshaw E, Namiki S, Zipursky SL, Card GM. Nature. 2023 Jan;613(7944):534-542.
• A functionally ordered visual feature map in the Drosophila brain. Klapoetke NC, Nern A, Rogers EM, Rubin GM, Reiser MB, Card GM. Neuron. 2022 May 18;110(10):1700-1711.e6.
• Context-dependent control of behavior in Drosophila. Oram TB, Card GM. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2022 Apr;73:102523.
• A population of descending neurons that regulates the flight motor of Drosophila. Namiki S, Ros IG, Morrow C, Rowell WJ, Card GM, Korff W, Dickinson MH. Curr Biol. 2022 Mar 14;32(5):1189-1196.e6.
• Functional architecture of neural circuits for leg proprioception in Drosophila. Chen C, Agrawal S, Mark B, Mamiya A, Sustar A, Phelps JS, Lee WA, Dickson BJ, Card GM, Tuthill JC. Curr Biol. 2021 Dec 6;31(23):5163-5175.e7.
• Multi-regional circuits underlying visually guided decision-making in Drosophila. Cheong HS, Siwanowicz I, Card GM. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2020 Dec;65:77-87.
• Unc-4 acts to promote neuronal identity and development of the take-off circuit in the Drosophila CNS. Lacin H, Williamson WR, Card GM, Skeath JB, Truman JW. Elife. 2020 Mar 27;9:e55007. doi: 10.7554/eLife.55007.
• State-dependent decoupling of sensory and motor circuits underlies behavioral flexibility in Drosophila. Ache JM, Namiki S, Lee A, Branson K, Card GM. Nat Neurosci. 2019 Jul;22(7):1132-1139.