CV & ABSTRACT

SPEAKER AT:

Moses Chao, Ph.D., Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, USA

Dr. Moses, Ph.D., UCLA, Department of Chemistry, Los Angeles, CA, and Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. Professor of Cell Biology, Physiology and Neuroscience, Co-Coordinator, Molecular Neurobiology Program, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine Professor of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine . Associate of the Center of Neural Science, New York University. President of the Society for Neuroscience. From 2006, Dr. Chao is Senior Editor of the Journal of Neuroscience. Member of the Simons Foundation Scientific Advisory Board and the NIH Genes Cognition and Psychosis Scientific Advisory Board.

Trk receptors are computational sensors

To explain the ability of BDNF to regulate multiple activities from survival to dendritic growth and synaptic plasticity and memory requires distinct signaling components, posttranslational events and cell biological mechanisms. To accomplish these actions requires receptors that can sense, integrate and transmit the appropriate responses. BDNF use two receptors, TrkB and p75, which display interactions with other signaling pathways. Neurotrophin receptors are programmed to present different binding sites and affinities to their ligands, which determine their responsiveness and specificity. As such, these receptors continually carry out molecular computation to assess the levels of neurotrophin expression, their binding affinity and the duration and intensity of downstream signaling cascades. These computations are significant, as transient or sustained activation of Trk receptors leads to different effects upon gene expression and changes in morphological and synaptic plasticity.