Dr. Nael Nadif Kasri, PhD.

Group leader, assistant professor
Neurobiologist
Radboud University Medical Centre
Department of Human Genetics

Contact Information

Radboud University Medical Centre
PO Box 9101, 6500 HB, The Netherlands
Email: [email protected]
Telephone Number: 0031 24 3614242

Education:

Postdoctoral fellow: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, US 2005-2010
PhD: Catholic University Leuven, Belgium, 2000-2004
Master’s: Catholic University Leuven, Belgium, 1996-2000

Research Interests

Dr. Nael Nadif Kasri, is a neurobiologist who has extensive experience with the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity, including imaging and electrophysiological methods in cellular and animal models. Since the start of his postdoctoral studies he has been interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders. In his postdoc he mainly focused on understanding the function of Intellectual disability (ID) genes related to the RhoGTPase pathway and he was among the first to posit that ID disorders are disorders of the synapse.

When starting his lab in 2011 at the Radboudumc, he joined the Human Genetics department (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) where he started several collaborations to understand the synaptic basis of ID. As such he has focused his research on several syndromes that were initially discovered in Nijmegen, being Kleefstra syndrome and Koolen-de Vries Syndrome. One of his recent contributions is the implementation of multi-electrode recordings in human induced pluripotent stem cells. This technique enables the stratification of patients who suffer from autism, which may lead to more specific therapies.

Dr. Nael Nadif Kasri was awarded with a Human Frontiers fellowship at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (USA), where he performed his second postdoctoral study. Since 2011 he has his own research group at the Radboudumc, and became part of the Donders Institute in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. There he was granted a prestigious Hypatia fellowship and a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant.

Publications

Total number of publications: 54 H index: 21

1. Frega M, van Gestel S, Linda K, van der Raadt J, Keller J, van Rhijn JR, Schubert D, Albers CA, Nadif Kasri N. Rapid neuronal differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells for measuring network activity on micro-electrode arrays 2017 JOVE, doi: 10.3791/54900.

2. Martens M, Frega M, Classen J, Epping L, Bijvank E, Benevento M, van Bokhoven H, Tiesinga P, Schubert D, Nadif Kasri N. Euchromatin histone methyltransferase 1 regulates cortical neuronal network development. Sci Rep. 2016 6:35756.

3. Benevento M, Iacono G, Selten M, Ba W, Oudakker A, Frega M, Keller J, Mancini M, Lewerissa E, Kleefstra T, Stunnenberg HG, Zhou H, van Bokhoven H and Nadif Kasri N. Histone methylation by the Kleefstra syndrome protein EHMT1 mediates homeostatic synaptic scaling. Neuron 2016, 91:341-55.

4. Ba W, Selten MM, van der Raadt J, van Veen H, Li LL, Benevento M, Oudakker AR, Lasabuda RSE, Letteboer SJ, Roepman R, van Wezel RJA, Courtney MJ, van Bokhoven H and Nadif Kasri N. ARHGAP12 functions as a developmental brake on excitatory synapse function. Cell Reports 2016, 4:1355-68

5. Ba W, Yan Y, Reijnders MR, Schuurs-Hoeijmakers JH, Feenstra I, Bongers EM, Bosch DG, de Leeuw N, Pfundt R, Gilissen C, de Vries PF, Veltman JA, Hoischen A, Mefford HC, Eichler EE, Vissers LE, Nadif Kasri N.#*, de Vries BB TRIO loss of function is associated with mild intellectual disability and affects dendritic branching and synapse function. Hum Mol Genet. 2016 25:892-902

6. Rivero O, Selten M, Sich S, Popp S, Bacmeister L, Amendola E, Negwer M, Schubert D, Proft F, Kiser D, Schmitt A, Gross C, Kolk SM, Strekalova T, van den Hove D, J. Resink T, Nael Nadif Kasri#, Klaus-Peter Lesch Cadherin-13, a risk gene for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, impacts cognition and GABAergic function in hippocampus. Transl Psychiatry 2015, 5:e655

7. Nikkie FM Olde Loohuis, Ba W, Peter Stoerchel, Aron Kos, Amanda Jager, Gerhard Schratt, Gerard JM Martens, Hans van Bokhoven, Nael Nadif Kasri#* and Armaz Aschrafi#. MicroRNA-137 Controls Synaptic Efficacy and mGluR-Dependent LTD by Targeting AMPA-Receptor Subunit GluA1. Cell Reports, 2015 11:1876-84.

8. Nakano-Kobayashi A, Tai Y, Nadif Kasri N#, Van Aelst L# The X-linked Mental Retardation Protein OPHN1 Interacts with Homer1b/c to Control Spine Endocytic Zone Positioning and Expression of Synaptic Potentiation. J Neurosci. 2014 ;34:8665-71.

9. Nadif Kasri N#, Nakano-Kobayashi# A and van Aelst, L. Rapid synthesis of the X-linked mental retardation protein OPHN1 mediates mGluR-dependent LTD through interaction with the endocytic machinery. Neuron 2011, 72, 300–315

10. Nadif Kasri N, Nakano-Kobayashi A, Malinow R, Li B and van Aelst L. The Rho-linked mental retardation protein oligophrenin-1 controls synapse maturation and plasticity by stabilizing AMPA receptors. Genes Dev 2009, 23, 1289–1302