BBB Seminar: Biokjemisk Kollokvium (NBS, Bergen Division): Mark von Zastrow

Regulation of neural signaling receptors by membrane traffic in the endocytic pathway

Mark von Zastrow,
Department of Psychiatry, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, and Program in Cell Biology, UCSF School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA

Our lab is interested in understanding how signaling receptors are regulated in complex mammalian tissues, with primary focus on neurons of the central nervous system and receptor regulation by endocytic membrane traffic. Over the past several years we have investigated regulation of ionotropic glutamate receptors, the primary mediators of fast excitatory synaptic transmission, and seven-transmembrane G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that represent the largest family of neural signaling receptors known. One effort in the lab is to understand how closely homologous receptors undergo molecular "sorting" in the endocytic pathway to confer distinct regulatory fates. Another is to understand how cell biological principles of receptor regulation impact neurophysiology and neuropsychiatric disease processes. Interest in this area has led us to identify specific roles of receptor endocytosis/exocytosis in mediating synaptic plasticity, and in fundamentally distinguishing effects of addictive opiate drugs from those of endogenous neuropeptides.

Host: Jaakko Saraste , Department of Biomedicine