When:
Monday, August 31, 2015
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT
Where: Ward Building, 5-230, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Liz Barrera
(312) 503-4892
Group: Department of Pharmacology Seminars
Category: Lectures & Meetings
The Department of Pharmacology is pleased to announce an upcoming seminar, to be presented by:
Dr. Paul Davies, Ph.D.,
Research Assistant Professor
Neuroscience-BasicSci/Medical
Tufts University School of Medicine
The following, is an overview of this seminar, as described by Dr. Davies:
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder and a common form of inherited intellectual disability. Studies in Fmr1 KO mice, and brain samples from FXS patients, have alluded to a reduction in α4 subunit-containing extrasynaptic GABAARs and a consequential decrease in tonic inhibition leading to excessive neuronal activity. Neurosteroids are known allosteric enhancers of GABAAR function but we have revealed that neurosteroids also increase PKC-mediated phosphorylation of α4 subunits, which increases membrane expression of GABAARs containing α4δ subunits. We are using neurosteroids as a novel pharmacological agent to reverse deficits in tonic inhibition seen in many neurodevelopmental disorders.