During development, billions of neurons form intricate networks that detect, transmit and process different types of information—from sights, sounds, and smells to thoughts and memories. Although each network ultimately acquires the properties needed for its distinct function, they are all built through shared developmental processes, from cell fate specification to synapse formation and refinement. While much has been learned about the cellular and molecular building blocks underlying each common developmental process, we still don’t understand how such generic events are tailored and coordinated to create the array of specialized circuits found throughout the nervous system.​

To learn how different types of neural networks acquire their unique properties, the Goodrich lab employs mouse genetics, timelapse imaging, and single cell sequencing together with sensitive anatomical and physiological approaches. We investigate circuit assembly in two sensory systems: hearing and vision. In each system, specific classes of neurons elaborate morphologies that are appropriate for their role in the circuit. We are studying how these morphologies develop, such as the emergence of simple bipolar spiral ganglion neurons that make unusual synapses that ensure rapid and reliable transmission from the inner ear to the brain or the morphogenesis of retinal amacrine cells, which are unipolar but elaborate extensive dendritic arbors that are ideal for modulating visual information locally in the retina.

Additionally, we are curious how the nervous system is able to use the same signaling molecules to build fundamentally different tissues and circuits. How do the same molecules exert distinct functions depending on the context in which they are presented? For example, the secreted protein Netrin-1 is a highly versatile molecule that, while famous for its role in axon guidance, also mediates cell adhesion, migration and survival—depending on where and when in nervous system development we look. We are studying how this versatility is achieved at the molecular level.