When:
Friday, July 14, 2017
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CT
Where: Ward Building, 5-230, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Alexa Nash
(312) 503-4893
Group: Department of Pharmacology Seminars
Category: Lectures & Meetings
The Department of Pharmacology invites you to a guest speaker lecture presented by Zhiping Pang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Child Health Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
The following is an overview of this seminar, as described by Dr. Pang:
Brain function relies on information flow from one neuron to another, a process that primarily takes place at specialized structures called synapses. To relay information across these junctions, neurons release neurotransmitters which can be roughly categorized into two main types: classical neurotransmitters (e.g. glutamate, GABA and glycine), and non-classical neurotransmitters (e.g. neuropeptides and monoamines). As understanding synaptic functioning is a prerequisite for comprehending complex human behavior, we are interested in defining the mechanisms by which classical neurotransmission can be modulated by neuropeptides. In this talk, I will discuss two ongoing projects emerging from my lab: 1) using mouse models, we recently discovered that endogenously-released glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) enhances glutamate receptor trafficking in the paraventricular hypothalamus to suppress food intake; and 2) using human neurons derived from patient-specific induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, we are exploring how a single nucleotide polymorphism (A118G) in the mu opioid receptor (MOR) alters downstream synaptic regulations.