St. Boniface Hospital Research

Dr. Timothy Gomez
Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy
University of Wisconsin Medical School

Wednesday, April 23^rd, 2008

3:00 - 4:00 pm
Samuel N. Cohen Auditorium
*Lecture will be video-conferenced to Bannatyne Campus (A229 Chown)
 

TOPIC:  "Balanced FAK activity controls growth cone adhesion and axon guidance."

Dr. Timothy Gomez
 
Research Strengths:   Development: Plasticity and Repair, Molecular Neuroscience

   Work in my laboratory focuses on the intracellular signaling mechanisms that regulate growth cone motility and guidance. Growth cones are sensory-motor specializations at the tips of developing axons and dendrites, which detect and transduce extracellular cues into guided extension. Guidance of growing axons to their proper synaptic targets sites serves a crucial early step in the development of specific synaptic connectivity. Great advances have been made in recent years in our understanding of the factors that contribute to guided axon extension. Many new classes of ligands and their receptors have been discovered and we are beginning to appreciate how growth cones integrate multiple extracellular stimuli and convert those signals into stereotyped behaviors. However, it is clear that the number of specific synaptic connections far exceeds the number of guidance cues and receptors that are expressed by neurons. Therefore, epigenetic mechanisms, such as biochemical signal cascades, must provide additional information that is required to organize the highly complex interconnections of the adult nervous system.

For more information:
  
Paul Fernyhough
Telephone: 235-3939
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