Visiting Speaker & Seminar Series

Friday, November 25th, 2016
9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
PX236/238 PscyHealth Bldg., Bannatyne Campus

DR. TABREZ SIDDIQUI

Assistant Professor of Physiology and Pathophysiology,

College of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.

Principal Investigator, Neuroscience Research Program,

Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine, Health Sciences Centre

TOPIC:  "Molecular mechanisms of neuronal synapse development"

The Siddiqui laboratory is interested in learning how nerve cell connections known as “synapses” form and function in the developing and adult brain. Synapses are the fundamental units for information processing in the brain. Evidence from genetic studies, animal models and post-mortem human tissue indicate impairment of synapse development and synaptic dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

Synapses undergo morphological and functional changes in response to neural activity, a phenomenon known as plasticity. These experience-dependent plastic changes at synapses are critical for cognitive processes including learning and memory.  Our work focusses on the roles of cell adhesion and scaffolding molecules in the development, maintenance and plasticity of synapses and how these processes can be regulated in health and disease. We are particularly interested in understanding how specific neural circuits essential for learning and memory form and function in the brain.

To address our questions, we combine multiple interdisciplinary methods ranging from biochemical and biophysical approaches to cellular, molecular and genetic studies, particularly regional and temporal manipulation of synaptic genes in mice brains. We are also developing our capabilities in behavioral studies in mouse models of autism and schizophrenia.

http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/health_sciences/medicine/units/physiology/contacts/8986.html

Learning Objective:  To understand the molecular mechanisms regulating the development of synaptic circuitry in the mammalian brain

/sent on behalf of

Dr. Eftekhar Eftekharpour

Coordinator  - MNN Visiting Speaker & Seminar Series Program

eftekhar.eftekharpour@umanitoba.ca

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