Rate My Professor Jason Christie

Jason M. Christie, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from the Oregon Health and Science University at the Vollum Institute, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in the same institution. Prior to joining CU Anschutz in 2021, he led an independent research group at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, where he established the Mechanisms of Synaptic Signaling and Computation group. His career has focused on advancing the understanding of neural circuits through innovative experimental approaches.

The Christie Lab investigates the neural-circuit mechanisms that underlie learning-dependent optimization of behavior, with a primary emphasis on the cerebellum. This structure guides adaptive updating of reflexive movements and contributes to experience-driven refinement of higher-order brain functions such as thinking, planning, and decision-making. Employing a bottom-up strategy, the lab uses ex-vivo slice electrophysiology to identify principles of information processing in cerebellar neurons, including properties of neurotransmission, intrinsic excitability, and associative plasticity. These findings are validated through in vivo measurements in awake, behaving animals via techniques including two-photon microscopy, optogenetics, and calcium imaging to link cellular activity, neural computation, and behavior in both healthy models and those of neurological disorders like autism and intellectual disability. Key publications include 'Autonomous Purkinje cell activation instructs bidirectional motor learning through evoked dendritic calcium signaling' (Nature Communications, 2021), 'Conversion of graded presynaptic climbing fiber activity into graded postsynaptic Ca²⁺ signals by Purkinje cell dendrites' (Neuron, 2019), 'Graded control of climbing fiber-mediated plasticity and learning by inhibition in the cerebellum' (Neuron, 2018), 'Cerebellum encodes and influences the initiation, performance, and termination of discontinuous movements in mice' (eLife, 2022), and 'Tbx1 haploinsufficiency leads to local skull deformity, paraflocculus and flocculus dysplasia, and motor-learning deficit in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome' (Nature Communications, 2024). Christie's contributions have significantly influenced the field of cerebellar neuroscience and motor learning.