Join us on Friday, October 10th at 11am for another installment of our Fall Seminar Series!

 

Guest lecturer, Dr. Denise Garcia, will be visiting from Drexel's Neurobiology and Anatomy Department, and will present her talk, “Astrocyte regulation of synaptic plasticity mediated by Sonic hedgehog signaling”

 

Abstract:

How the nervous system establishes the appropriate organization of synapses during development and how these synapses are remodeled following experience remain fundamental questions in neuroscience.  Much of our understanding of these processes has focused on neuronal mechanisms. However astrocytes, non-neuronal glial cells in the central nervous system, have gained recognition as key regulators of synaptic formation and function.  The central focus of the work in our lab aims to understand how astrocytes promote and mediate synaptic formation and function in development and following experience.  We recently discovered that the molecular signaling pathway, Sonic hedgehog, is bidirectionally regulated by sensory experience and regulates gene expression in astrocytes of genes that promote synaptic plasticity.  This work identifies a molecular signal that couples neural activity with astrocytic gene expression.  

 

Can't make it? Join us on Zoom!

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