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Università degli Studi di Verona PhD SCHOOL OF SCIENCE ENGINEERING MEDICINE Ca' Vignal 2 Strada le Grazie 15 37134 Verona - Italia Tel. +39 045 802 7026 Fax +39 045 802 7068 The functional organization of neuromuscular junctions: Pushing chemical communication to its limits? Lectio Magistralis Tuesday, May 10, 2011 h 15.00 Aula “A” - Istituti Biologici Prof. Clarke R. Slater Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Abstract The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is the synapse between the motor nerve cells and the muscle fibres. Not only is this structure of fundamental importance for our movements but it also represents a classic model synapse in which basic properties of the communications between nerve cells are investigated. In particular it is a model of chemical communication (as opposed to electrical) where particular molecules, the neurotransmitters, mediate the signal transmission between nerve cells and their partners, be they other nerve cells or muscle fibres. At the NMJ the neurotransmitter released by the pre-synaptic motor neuron, acetylcholine (ACh), interacts with its receptors (AChRs) located on the post-synaptic muscle fibre, to operate the transmission of the nerve impulse (action potential) from the motor neuron to the muscle fibre, where it finally evokes the contraction. One of the many interesting questions to be asked about cells is how nearly their performance reaches the limits that are posed by the physicochemical properties of the molecules of which they are made. The lecture will consider this very general question in the context of the model synapse represented by the NMJ. The talk will begin by summarizing what NMJs do and how they do it. It will then go on to consider in more detail the spatial organization of the cellular machinery responsible for release of transmitter from the nerve terminal and for mediating the response of the muscle fibre to the transmitter. Finally, the lecture will show how the spatial aspects of NMJ organization and the speed of neuromuscular transmission appear to be matched to the rates of diffusion and binding of the small molecule ACh that mediates chemical transmission. Clarke Rothwell SLATER Clarke SLATER was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA in 1940. In 1962 he graduated in Biology at the Harvard College. From 1962 to 1965 he was a Marshall Scholar at the Dept. of Biophysics of University College, London, with Bernard Katz and Ricardo Miledi. There he obtained the Ph.D. degree working on the dependence of structure and function of the NMJ on the motor nerve cell. In 1966-1974 he had postdoctoral appointments at NIH, Washington, the Neurobiology Dept. of Harvard Medical School, Boston, the MRC in Cambridge, England. In 1974-1975 he was a Visiting Fellow of the Norwegian Research Council at the Neurophysiology Institute of Oslo University, where he investigated the role of activity in the development of the NMJ with Terje Lomo. In 1981-1982 he was Visiting Associate Professor at the Neurobiology Dept. of Stanford University Medical School; recipient of Senior Investigator Award, Muscular Dystrophy Association (USA). There he collaborated with Jack McMahan on the role of the basal lamina at the NMJs of regenerating muscles. After 1975 he held research and faculty positions at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne Medical School, UK, always investigating the NMJ in health and disease, such as myasthenia and muscular dystrophy. There he is Professor of Neuroscience since 2000, presently Emeritus. _______________________________________________________________________________ For further information please contact Prof. Alberto Cangiano Tel. 045/8027150 e-mail: [email protected]