Ultrafast Endocytosis at Synapses: Revisiting Heuser and Reese in the 21st Century
Event Details
- Type
- Friday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
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Erik M. Jorgensen, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, department of biology, University of Utah; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Speaker bio(s)
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In 1973, John Heuser and Tom Reese demonstrated that synaptic vesicles were recycled locally after synaptic transmission. But how they are recycled remains a controversy that is unresolved today. Do vesicles collapse into the membrane and are then recovered slowly after 30 seconds? Or do they retain their existence and reverse the pore in just one second, as proposed in “kiss and run” endocytosis? Dr. Jorgensen’s laboratory used channelrhodopsin to stimulate neurons in intact nematodes and in cultured hippocampal neurons. The specimens were then frozen milliseconds to seconds after the stimulus. To their surprise, they observed a new form of vesicle recycling that is ultrafast, in which the membrane is endocytosed at the lateral edges of active zones 30–300 ms after stimulation. The large endocytic vesicles then fuse to form an endosome and are resolved by clathrin into synaptic vesicles about five seconds after stimulation. Ultrafast endocytosis is thus able to explain the robust nature of synaptic transmission.
Dr. Jorgensen studies the molecular mechanisms of synaptic transmission using the nematode C. elegans and the mouse. His studies have focused on four main areas: neurotransmitters, exocytosis, endocytosis, and genome engineering.
Dr. Jorgensen received his B.S. in animal resources from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1979. He received his Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Washington in 1989, where he was in Dr. Richard Garber’s laboratory. He performed his postdoctoral work in Dr. H. Robert Horvitz’s laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Dr. Jorgensen initiated studies into the genetic basis of GABA transmission in the nematode C. elegans. In 1994, he established his own laboratory in the department of biology at the University of Utah. He is currently Distinguished Professor in the department of biology and an adjunct professor in the department of human genetics and the department of bioengineering. An investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2005, Dr. Jorgensen is the recipient of numerous honors for his work, including the Humboldt Prize in 2012, the Frank Lillie Innovation Award in 2014, the Roger Eckert Memorial Award in 2015, and the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology in 2015.
- Open to
- Public
- Host
- Michael Young, Ph.D.
- Reception
- Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge
- Contact
- Justin Sloboda
- Phone
- (212) 327-7785
- Sponsor
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Justin Sloboda
(212) 327-7785
jsloboda@rockefeller.edu