Topic: Structure and regulation of AMPA receptor at synapses

Speaker: Prof. Ingo Greger

Time: 4:20-5:30 PM, 4 Nov., 2024

Venue: Room 111, Lynn Library

Abstract

Accumulation of AMPA glutamate receptors (AMPAR) at excitatory synapses is central to the synaptic plasticity underlying long-term potentiation. In this talk I shall discuss AMPAR structure and how AMPAR organisation and composition contributes to both short-term and long-term synaptic plasticity.

Introduction

Ingo Greger obtained his PhD in 1998 from the University of Oxford (UK), where he investigated mechanisms of gene expression in Nick Proudfoot’s lab, using yeast as a model system.

In 1999 he moved to the NYU School of Medicine & HHMI, to the lab of Ed Ziff, where he started his work on AMPA receptors, investigating their biogenesis and trafficking mechanisms from the endoplasmic reticulum.

Back in the UK, he continued his work on glutamate receptors whilst a Royal Society fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, from 2003-2006. At the LMB he added structural approaches (X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM) and patch-clamp electrophysiology to the study of glutamate receptors.

He is currently a senior MRC investigator at the LMB. His lab studies AMPA receptor operation at various levels of complexity, using a combination of structural, functional and imaging approaches. His ultimate aim is to understand how glutamate receptor regulation at synapses contributes to learning.