Research
2009 Symposium
  Speakers
  Directions
Past Symposia
  2008 - Inflammation and Host Defense
  2007 - Genes, Environment and Behavior
  2006 - Stem Cells: From Biology to Therapy
  2005 - The biology of sex
  2004 - Destruction & Renewal
  2003 - Molecular Machines
  2002 - Synaptic Plasticity
  2001 - Growth Control
  1999 - Biomolecular Medicine
  1998 - Molecular Pathogenesis
Structure of the Synapse

Friday, June 05, 2009
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM Farkas Auditorium
New York University School of Medicine,
540 First Ave., New York, NY

The 2009 Skirball Symposium is open to the public, with no registration fee.
Feel free to spread the word!

We are our synapses. A synapse is the site where neurons meet and communicate with each other. It is also the place where defects in architecture or communication cause diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Most drugs known to affect the brain exert their therapeutic effects at the synapse. Therefore, studying synaptic architecture and transmission mechanism is crucial for an understanding of physiologic processes - learning and memory - and disease pathogenesis. In recent years, great progress has been made in identifying the major components of the synapse and their interplay: vesicle fusion proteins, scaffolding proteins, neurotransmitter transporters, receptors and channels. The 2009 Skirball Symposium, "Structure of the Synapse," will bring together some of the world's leading experts in this field to review the most recent breakthroughs in synaptic structure and mechanism, and how such work will impact the clinical disciplines of neurology, psychiatry and neuropharmacology.

Program

09:30AM Introduction
Dr. Ruth Lehmann, Director, Skirball Institute, NYU School of Medicine
 
09:45AM Synaptic transmission: an overview
Chuck Stevens, Salk Institute
 
10:30AM Synaptic vesicles and exocytosis
Reinhard Jahn, Max-Planck Institute
 
11:15AM Coffee Break
 
11:35AM Synergistic interactions between components of the synaptic vesicle fusion machinery
Axel Brunger, Stanford University / HHMI
 
12:20PM Atomic structure and molecular mechanism of receptors at chemical synapses
Eric Gouaux, Vollum Institute / HHMI
 
1:15PM Lunch Break
 
2:45PM
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and the structural basis of fast cholinergic transmission
Nigel Unwin, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
 
3:30PM Modification of postsynaptic proteins and the regulation of synaptic function
Morgan Sheng, MIT / HHMI
 
4:15PM Mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus
Robert Malenka, Stanford University
 
5:00PM Closing
Dr. Ruth Lehmann, Skirball Institute
 

Speakers

Directions

Program (pdf)

Resources
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