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Friday Evening Lecture Series
06/19/09
Lillie Auditorium, 8:00 PM
"Building Brain Circuits"
Hollis "Holly" T. Cline, Scripps Research Institute; director, MBL Neurobiology course
Lecture Abstract:
During the assembly of functional brain circuits, neurons develop beautiful and complex structures reminiscent of trees. As the neuronal arbors grow they explore target areas in the brain and form synapses with other developing neurons. Circuits arise from the organized synaptic connections between neurons. I will discuss the Synaptotrophic Hypothesis, which states that synaptic connections between developing neurons control the exploratory behavior of developing neurons, the development of neuronal arbors and consequently the establishment of neuronal circuits. Several recent studies have applied modern molecular genetic, imaging and electrophysiological methods to address the applicability of the Synaptotrophic Hypothesis and now provide strong evidence that maturation of excitatory synaptic inputs is required for the development of neuronal structure in the intact brain.
Holly Cline is a professor in the departments of Cell Biology and Chemical Physiology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. She is also co-director of the MBL's Neurobiology course. Dr. Cline's research seeks to determine the mechanisms by which sensory experience affects the development of brain structures and function. It involves studies that investigate which genes and proteins are required for enhanced neuronal activity, and could have relevance to a variety of developmental neurological disorders such as Fragile X Syndrome, Rett's Syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, and schizophrenia—all of which are the result of errors in the development of brain circuitry. Dr. Cline received a B.A. in Biology from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University and Stanford University and later became an assistant professor at the University of Iowa. In 2008, Dr. Cline moved to the Scripps Research Institute from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where she was a professor of Neuroscience for 14 years and director of research from 2002 to 2006. At Cold Spring Harbor, she made major contributions to the understanding of brain development and function including developing a system to image the changes in connections between nerve cells, or synapses, in vivo in near real time. Dr. Cline sits on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and has received numerous honors throughout her career, including a 2005 National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award for highly creative, high-risk research.
John Lisman will introduce Dr. Cline. Dr. Lisman is the Zalman Abraham Kekst Chair in Neuroscience and Professor of Biology and of the Volen National Center for Complex Systems at Brandeis University. His research interests include synaptic plasticity, networks mechanisms that underlie short-term and long-term memory, and the role of theta and gamma oscillations in brain computations. Dr. Lisman received a B.A. from Brandeis and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the Brandeis faculty in 1975 following a postdoctoral fellowship with George Wald at Harvard University. Dr. Lisman has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health (1989 - 1996) and a MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) Award from the National Eye Institute (1987 - 1992). Dr. Lisman was a Grass Fellow at the MBL in 1972 and has been on the faculty of the MBL’s Neurobiology and Summer Program in Neuroscience, Ethics & Survival (SPINES) courses.
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