[QSB-grads] QSB Seminar Tomorrow - Synapse Homeostasis - Dion Dickman - COB1 113 @ 2pm

[Frederick Wolf]

Tomorrow Dion Dickman is visiting from USC to give a talk on the functional properties of neuronal synapses. Come learn about some of the surprising new ways that synapses maintain their strength.
Grad students and postdocs, please contact Anthony Lange if you’d like to join the lunch tomorrow at noon: alange3 at ucmerrced.edu



Homeostatic Control of Synaptic Growth and Plasticity

Homeostasis is a fundamental form Synapses have the remarkable ability to adaptively modulate their strength in response to perturbations that would otherwise destabilize communication in the nervous system, a process referred to as homeostatic synaptic plasticity. However, the molecules and mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. We have pioneered forward genetic approaches in Drosophila to identify the genes elucidate the mechanisms required to achieve and maintain the homeostatic control of synaptic plasticity. In my presentation, I will first discuss recent insights into how synapses sense homeostatic perturbations to synaptic efficacy and induce a trans-synaptic signaling system to stabilize neurotransmission in response. I will then discuss new mechanistic insights into how the structure of synapses adapt during development when the number of synapses deviate outside of normal physiological ranges. Using a combination of genetics, cell biology, electrophysiology, and quantitative imaging approaches, we hope to illuminate fundamental insights into the complex and enigmatic processes that control stable synaptic function.

Bio
Dion Dickman was born in Hawaii and did his undergraduate work at Washington University in St. Louis, studying synaptogenesis at the mouse neuromuscular junction in the lab of Josh Sanes. He went to Harvard for graduate work and UCSF for his postdoctoral studies, performing electrophysiology-based, forward genetic screens in Drosophila, identifying new genes involved in synaptic development, function, and plasticity. He started his own laboratory at the University of Southern California, where his group investigates how synaptic transmission is kept within stable physiological ranges in the nervous system, while still permitting the flexibility necessary for learning and memory. Using Drosophila as our model system, we are interested in the genes and molecular mechanisms that achieve and maintain the homeostatic control of synaptic strength, and how dysfunction in this process may contribute to neuropsychiatric disease. We are using a combination of genetic, electrophysiological, imaging, and behavioral approaches to gain insight into this complex and fundamental form of neural plasticity.



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Fred W Wolf, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Mol & Cell Biol / UC Merced
5200 N. Lake Rd. Merced, CA 95343
415.370.1132
fwolf at ucmerced.edu
http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/fwolf/
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