The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Thomas Sdhof, M.D., Avram Goldstein Professor, department of molecular and cellular physiology, Stanford School of Medicine; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Speaker bio(s)

Neurexins and their ligands are trans-synaptic cell-adhesion molecules that are essential for synapse function, and that shape the properties of synapses such as short- and long-term plasticity. Neurexins are presynaptic cell-adhesion molecules that are encoded by three extraordinarily large genes, each of which generates longer α- and shorter β-isoforms that are in turn diversified into thousands of alternatively spliced transcripts. Neurexins bind to multiple postsynaptic ligands, including neuroligins, LRRTMs, and the complex of cerebellins with GluRδ2. The various splice variants of neurexins and the various isoforms of their ligands exhibit strikingly different functional activities and binding affinities; their interactions are likely competitive, and contribute to determining the properties and nature of synapses. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that neurexins and their ligands perform central functions in the assembly and function of neural circuits, but their precise roles and mechanisms of action are only now beginning to emerge. Moreover, many different mutations in neurexin and their ligands have been associated with autism, schizophrenia and intellectual disability, suggesting that the functions of these molecules are relevant for insight into these devastating disorders. Dr. Südhof will describe his lab's recent studies on how neurexins and their ligands shape synapse properties, and how dysfunction of neurexins and their ligands might predispose to neuropsychiatric disorders.

 

Dr. Südhof obtained his M.D. and doctoral degrees from the University of Göttingen in 1982. He performed his doctoral thesis work at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen with Victor P. Whittaker on the biophysical structure of secretory granules, and did postdoctoral research with Mike Brown and Joe Goldstein at University of Texas Southwestern, where he elucidated the structure, expression and cholesterol-dependent regulation of the LDL receptor gene. Dr. Südhof began his independent career as an assistant professor at UT Southwestern in 1986, and switched from cholesterol metabolism to neuroscience, working to pursue a molecular characterization of synaptic transmission. His work initially focused on the mechanism of neurotransmitter release which is the first step in synaptic transmission, and whose molecular basis was completely unknown in 1986. Later on, Dr. Südhof's work increasingly turned to the analysis of synapse formation and specification, processes that mediate the initial assembly of synapses, regulate their maintenance and elimination, and determine their properties. Dr. Südhof served on the faculty of UT Southwestern until 2008, and was the founding chair of the department of neuroscience. In 2008 he moved to Stanford University as the Avram Goldstein Professor in the School of Medicine. Dr. Südhof has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1986.

 

Dr. Südhof is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His awards include the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, Lasker-DeBakey Basic Medical Research Award and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he received in 2013.

Open to

Public

Reception

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

Contact

Linda Hanssler

Phone

(212) 327-7714

Sponsor

Linda Hanssler
(212) 327-7714
lhanssler@rockefeller.edu

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=3640