The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

S. Lawrence Zipursky, Ph.D., professor, biological chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Speaker bio(s)

Dr. Zipursky's laboratory is interested in the developmental strategies and the molecular mechanisms underlying the assembly of neural circuits. He will discuss intercellular signaling mechanisms regulating the formation of columns and layers in the fly visual system, focusing on a cascade of anteriograde signals produced by growth cones that regulate multiple aspects of development in their targets, including proliferation, differentiation, survival and the targeting of other growth cones. Dr. Zipursky will also discuss the role of Dscam proteins in regulating circuit assembly in the visual system through homophilic repulsion. Dscam1 encodes thousands of isoform-specific cell recognition molecules, which regulate self-avoidance, the tendency of neurites of the same type of neuron to avoid each other. Dscam2 and Dscam4 regulate the related phenomenon of tiling, a mechanism that prevents the overlap of neurites of neighboring neurons of the same class. Dscam proteins act in overlapping and partially redundant ways. Probabilistic and determinative splicing of Dscam1 and Dscam2, respectively, play important roles in determining the assembly of postsynaptic elements at multiple contact synapses.

 

Dr. Zipursky received his Ph.D. at Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he completed his thesis on DNA replication in E. coli with Dr. Jerard Hurwitz. After postdoctoral studies in Drosophila neurogenetics with Seymour Benzer at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Zipursky joined the department of biological chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine. He and his colleagues have made important contributions to our understanding of the molecular basis of neural development, from cell fate determination to mechanisms of regulating the formation of neural circuits. Dr. Zipursky is a member the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Open to

Public

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Alena Powell

Phone

(212) 327-7745

Sponsor

Alena Powell
(212) 327-7745
apowell@rockefeller.edu

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=3219