This seminar will begin at 4:00 pm at the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, room L7-119. Light refreshments will be available starting at 3:30 pm.

This month's speakers:

Rachel Duffie (Lomvardas lab): "Post-transcriptional control of olfactory sensory neuron differentiation and identity"

Cellular differentiation in the olfactory epithelium is carefully orchestrated during development to ensure monoallelic expression of one olfactory receptor (OR) per neuron. We have identified Mex3a, an RNA binding and E3 ubiquitin ligase protein, to be expressed during a discrete window of neuronal differentiation before singular OR choice has been achieved. Our ongoing loss- and gain-of-function experiments are consistent with a critical role of Mex3a in post-transcriptional regulation of neuronal differentiation, axonal wiring, and cilia formation. We hypothesize that Mex3a prevents precocious neuronal differentiation to allow enough time for the neuron to select one OR, thus securing neuronal identity, proper axonal wiring, and a functional olfactory sensory system.

David Barack (Salzman lab): "Primates seek information to learn states of complex environments"

Abstract: Whether negotiating social spaces, planning foraging routes, or solving puzzles, humans and other primates reason and learn in complex environments with many actions and states. I will present preliminary data on monkeys and humans playing a simplified version of the game Battleship, designed to investigate learning these complex environments. Both monkeys and humans were adept at the task, quickly learning the hidden shapes, and both monkeys and humans appear to use a search strategy that maximizes the reduction in uncertainty about the underlying shape in selecting squares during the task.

This seminar is part of the Zuckerman Institute Postdoctoral Seminar series. For questions about this or future seminars, please contact series organizers Chris Rodgers, PhD, or Amy Norovich, PhD.