Description:

Title: "Structure and function of AMPA receptor auxiliary subunit complexes"

Abstract: Functional modulation of excitatory synaptic transmission in mammalian brain is fundamental to information processing across neurons, while dysfunctions of synapses accompany various neurological and psychiatric disorders. AMPA-type ionotropic glutamate receptors (AMPA-Rs) are ligand-gated ion channels activated by neurotransmitter L-glutamate and mediate most of excitatory synaptic transmission in the central synapses. Our current focus is to uncover fundamental mechanisms that underly the gating and trafficking of AMPA-Rs, taking approaches in structural biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and electrophysiology. These efforts may lead to producing knowledge relevant to designing new therapeutics that could control synaptic activities under disease conditions, which include Alzheimer’s disease, intellectual disability, seizure, excitotoxicity, ALS, memory loss, addiction, schizophrenia, and autism. In this seminar I will present recent progress we made in our laboratory on the molecular structures of AMPA-R in complex with auxiliary subunits and their ion permeation mechanisms.

Teru Nakagawa, PhD
Professor, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute