Edgar Correa-Colón, studying with Paschalis Kratisios, was awarded an NIH NRSA individual F31. He is testing the hypothesis that the evolutionarily conserved transcription factor UNC-30/PITX1-3 controls the establishment and maintenance of functional synapses in GABAergic motor neurons of the nematode C. elegans. Because human mutations in PITX and GABA biosynthesis genes are linked to neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, this project may have significant biomedical implications.