Late prenatal growth, early postnatal growth, and layering of the neocortical neurons (NC-Ns) play determining roles in the development of the cerebral cortex (CC). Here, we systematically explore the interactive role of neuronal surface receptors (NSRs) on cytoskeleton activation (CA) and the piconewton (pN) force generation (P-FG) and their influence on the proper development, growth, and functioning of neurons using a designed DNA nanomechanical device (DNA-NMD). This DNA-NMD, functioning as a molecular tension probe (MTP), can be used to selectively bind the different NSRs (β-NGFR, Reelin, and Integrin) to mono-, bi-, and trispecifically activate the receptors on the NC-Ns surface for imaging and calculating the P-FG involved in various processes. Measurements in vivo on the brain of newly born Institute of Cancer Research mice (early postnatal) or in vitro after extracting neurons from the fetal brain of pregnant Institute of Cancer Research mice (late prenatal) reveal that there are augmented interactive roles of the β-NGFR with Integrin and Reelin receptors (RR) on the CA and P-FG, resulting in enhanced directional migration of the neuronal endings (M-NEs), layering, and the somal terminal translocation (S-TT) followed by early postnatal growth.

Keywords:
 Neocortical neurons (NC-Ns)
 Neuronal surface receptors (NSRs)
 Migration of the neuronal endings 
 Somal terminal translocation 
 DNA nanomechanical device 
 Trispecific activation/deactivation

Dr. Baig, MMFA is a registered pharmacist, and currently a post-doctoral fellow (PDF) at the Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Chengfei Zhang. He received his Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), and MPhil (Pharmaceutical Chemistry) degrees from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Pakistan, and a Ph.D. degree from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University (NJU), China under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Xing-Hua Xia. During his PharmD research, he worked on a clinical trial in the Cardiology Ward of Nishtar Hospital, Multan, Pakistan (2009-2011). Later, he worked as a “Research Assistant” on a breast cancer project in the Department of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, BZU, Pakistan (2011-2012). His task was to analyze genetic polymorphism in the DNA extracted from the WBCs of the freshly collected blood samples. Then, he joined “Novartis Pharma, Pakistan” as a “Medical Information Officer” in the cardiovascular group (2012-2015) and won the “National Performance Award” in 2015. After that, he switched to academia in 2015 and worked as a “Lecturer of Pharmacology and Biochemistry” in Multan Medical & Dental College, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. He also taught Pharmacology and Physiology as a visiting lecturer at China Pharmaceutical University, and Nanjing Medical University in summer 2019. His MPhil research was focused on DNA Nanotechnology, Polymers, Material Chemistry, Drug Delivery, Biomedical Engineering, and Molecular Pharmaceutics. During his PhD, he won an excellent PhD student award in 2019 and worked on MechanoPharmacology, Advanced DNA NanoTherapeutics, Developmental Biology, Neuroscience, Biophysics, Bio-sensing, Bio-imaging, and Diagnostics. Currently, his research focus is designing DNA-based novel functional & bio-active nanomaterials to apply in Restorative Dentistry, Oral Microbiology & Oncology, Regenerative Therapeutics, and Stem Cells Research. He has 60 publications, an H-index of 15, and a total of 620 citations (google scholar) with a cumulative impact factor of 255.