This seminar will begin at 4:00 pm at the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia University’s Manhattanville campus (L7-119). Light refreshments will be available starting at 3:30 pm.

This month's speakers:

Azahara Gonzalez, PhD (Siegelbaum Lab) "Hippocampal mechanisms of social memory consolidation"

The hippocampus is involved in social memory - the ability to recognize and remember a conspecific. Yet, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Using in vivo electrophysiology and optogenetic manipulations we found that ensembles of cells in the dorsal hippocampus represent features of a social episode. Furthermore, these ensembles are later reactivated during sharp-wave ripples, hippocampal oscillations involved in memory consolidation. Optogenetic silencing of these ensembles during social interaction or selective disruption of sharp-wave ripple times interferes with the formation of a social memory trace.

Stefan Kassabov, PhD (Kandel Lab) "RNA binding protein CPEB3 couples neuronal activity and morphogenesis with energy metabolism via translational control of mitochondrial function"

Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element Binding protein 3 (CPEB3) is an RNA binding protein and translational regulator critical for long-term synaptic plasticity and memory maintenance. I recently found that CPEB3 is localized to neuritic mitochondria and is critical for mitochondrial function and neurite branching, which depends on local mitochondrial respiration. Moreover, CPEB3 expression is enriched in neurons with higher basal activity (e.g. PV interneurons and mossy cells) and is controlled by Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), providing a mechanistic link between neuronal activity, local protein synthesis and energy metabolism. These findings are consistent with a feed forward model wherein activity-dependent BDNF signaling and downstream CPEB3-mediated local protein synthesis at distal mitochondria sustain mitochondrial function, in turn fueling energy-demanding cellular processes such as local protein synthesis, neuronal activity and structural and memory maintenance.

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