Upcoming Seminars

• 26Sep

  MICRO/Pharmacology Seminar by Sergio Grinstein

  Where: Pinn 1-17
  Hosted by Microbiology and Co-hosted by Pharmacology (Adishesh Narahari, Michael Schappe and Pharm Students), Sergio Grinstein, PhD, is a Professor of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON RESEARCH DESCRIPTION Membrane Biology, Ion Transport, and the Innate Immune Response Dr. Grinstein's group is interested in several aspects of membrane biology and signal transduction. Part of his group studies ion transport mechanisms and regulation, with particular interest in the regulation of the intracellular pH. Another sub-group studies the molecular basis of the innate immune response, mostly in macrophages. The receptors, signals and effectors that mediate phagocytosis are topics of interest, as is the interaction of pathogens with host cells.

• 11Oct

  "Sleep-mediated Regulation of Natural and Drug Reward" by Yanhua Huang

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Julius Zhu, Yanhua Huang, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA Yanhua Huang, PhD has focused her research on neural plasticity within the reward circuitry of the brain. She studies molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying drug abuse and addiction and sleep-mediated regulation of reward-elicited behaviors. By studying neural plasticity in rodent models, she is working to characterize pathway-specific changes in the reward circuitry of the brain following sleep disturbances and identify molecular targets for new interventions for drug addiction, depression, and other related psychiatric disorders.

• 25Oct

  "Metabolic Stress Hormone FGF21: From Thirsty to Thin" by Steve Kliewer

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Irina Bochkis, Steven Kliewer, PhD, is a Professor and Diana K. and Richard C. Strauss Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology in Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX Dr. Kliewer runs a joint laboratory with Dr. David Mangelsdorf. Their research focuses on the roles of nuclear receptors and endocrine FGFs in regulating diverse aspects of physiology and pathophysiology, including metabolism and related diseases. Among their ongoing projects, they are studying how FGF19 and FGF21 regulate bile acid and energy homeostasis, respectively, and how the dafachronic acid receptor, DAF-12, regulates the infectious lifecycle of parasitic nematodes

• 08Nov

  Pharmacology Seminar by Benjamin Turk

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by John Fu, Ben Turk, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT Research interests: Deciphering mechanisms of substrate targeting by protein kinases The completion of the human genome a decade ago revealed more than 500 genes encoding protein kinases, and mass spectrometry based phosphoproteomics efforts have now cataloged over 100,000 sites of phosphorylation in mammalian cells. These studies have clearly outpaced our ability to understand signaling networks through analysis of individual kinases and their substrates: for the vast majority of the phosphorylation sites, the responsible kinase and functional significance are simply not known. My group studies basic mechanisms used by kinases to target specific substrates within the cell, with the idea of applying this knowledge to identify new kinase-substrate pairs on a proteomic scale. Kinases interact with their substrates through short sequence motifs found both at the site of phosphorylation and at distal sites. We develop methodology that allows for the rapid identification of these protein kinase recognition motifs. Using synthetic peptide arrays, we have recently conducted a biochemical screen to identify phosphorylation site motifs recognized by the entire set of kinases from budding yeast, and a similar screen...

• 15Nov

  2018 Joseph Larner Memorial Lecture in Pharmacology by Holly A. Ingraham

  Where: PHCC Auditorium 1st Floor Pinn Hall
  A lectureship was established to honor the memory of Joseph Larner, who served as Professor and Chair of the Pharmacology Department for many years. During his time as Chair he recruited and mentored numerous successful faculty, including Al Gilman. He continued to be an inspiration to everyone who knew him, especially our graduate students, who were in awe of his energy and enthusiasm as he kept up his science and maintained an active departmental presence well into his 90s. In addition to honoring Dr. Larner's memory, the goal of this lectureship is to highlight exciting new advances in an area that held great interest for him: the pervasive role of metabolism/cell signaling in human disease. About this Year's Speaker: Hosted by Michelle Bland and Thurl Harris, Holly A. Ingraham, PhD, is a Professor and Associate Vice Chair of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Herzstein Distinguished Investigator, UCSF, San Francisco, CA Ingraham's lab has focused on defining the molecular mechanisms and transcriptional pathways that contribute to endocrine tissue development and function. Our approaches are broad, spanning structural biology, biochemistry and genetic mouse models. In the last several years we have worked to understand how the...

• 29Nov

  Pharmacology Seminar by Christopher Ford

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Julius Zhu, Christopher Ford, PhD, is a Principal Investigator in the Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver, CO The Ford Lab examines the neuronal mechanisms by which G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate synaptic transmission in the mesolimbic and nigrostriatal systems. Neuromodulators such as dopamine, acetylcholine and serotonin play key roles in controlling a variety of motivated behaviors including decision-making, action selection, motor skill learning, habit formation and reward processing. We use the combination of electrophysiology, 2-photon imaging, optogenetics and electrochemisty to study how the synaptic release of these transmitters becomes encoded within mesolimbic and nigrostriatal circuits through their GPCRs. By identifying the mechanisms regulating metobotropic transmission we aim to identify the disruptions in these system that are thought to underlie psychiatric disorders such as drug addiction and schizophrenia.

• 06Dec

  "Brain Initiative and Beyond-Neuroscience Funding Priorities from the NIH" by Edmund Tally

  Where: Pinn 1-17
  Hosted by Douglas Bayliss NGP/Neuroscience and the Brain Institute, Edmund Talley, PhD, is the Program Director, Channels, Synapses and Circuits, NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Bethesda, MD Edmund (Ned) Talley joined the NINDS in 2005 as a Program Director for Channels, Synapses and Circuits. His program at the NINDS is focused on basic research in synaptic transmission and neuromodulation. Dr. Talley received his Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of Virginia, where he studied the physiology and pharmacology of motor neurons involved in respiration. After his Ph.D., he remained at UVA as a Research Assistant Professor, and initiated investigations into the CNS functions of two-pore-domain potassium channels, with an emphasis on their modulation by neurotransmitters and clinically important drugs. His work on these channels included extensive mapping of their CNS expression patterns, identification of molecular bases for their modulation using mutational and biochemical analyses, and investigations into their functions in vivo by generating knockout mouse lines.

• 14Feb

  Pharmacology Seminar by Amy Walker

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Thurl Harris, Amy K. Walker, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA The Walker lab uses worms, cells and mice to study how metabolites like the methyl-donor SAM or the methylated phospholipid PC regulate gene expression, the activity of the lipogenic transcription factor SREBP-1 and how bacterial metabolites can affect lipid accumulation in multicellular animals.

• 28Feb

  Pharmacology Seminar by Edward Dennis

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Ku-Lung(Ken) Hsu, Edward Dennis, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Chemistry & Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA The Dennis laboratory is leading the national NIGMS LIPID MAPS Glue Grant Consortium which is developing LC/MS based lipidomics analysis to map the lipidome by detecting and quantizing the numerous molecular species of lipids in the murine macrophage. We are determining the lipid changes upon cell stimulation by various agonists such as TLR receptor agonists. Our laboratory is focused on identifying the known and discovering new fatty acids and eicosanoid metabolites (prostaglandins and leukotrienes) in these cells and using LC/MS to follow their production upon cell stimulation and determining lipid metabolite fluxes at the cellular level.

• 07Mar

  Pharmacology Seminar by Savraj Grewal

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Michelle Bland, Savraj Grewal is an Associate Professor in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Grewal lab is a member of the Clark Smith Center, a Brain Tumor Research Program at the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute in Calgary, Alberta. The lab are also members of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Calgary. Research focus: Studying the control of growth Understanding how cells grow and divide is a fundamental problem in biology. During animal development the proper regulation of cell growth is essential for controlling organ and organism size. While in cancer, deregulated cell growth is often an early event in tumor formation. We use a combination of molecular and genetic approaches to study cell, tissue and body growth, using Drosophila as a model system.

• 28Mar

  Pharmacology Seminar by Huiping Zhou

  Where: Pinn 1-17
  Hosted by Kevin Lynch, Huiping Zhou, PhD, is a Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA Research Focus: S1PRs, Immunology and Diabetes

• 11Apr

  Pharmacology Seminar by Sayeepriyadarshini (Sayee) Anakk

  Where: Pinn 1-17
  Hosted by Irina Bochkis, Sayeepriyadarshini "Sayee" Anakk, is an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL The Annak Lab focuses on understanding liver metabolism in normal and diseased state. It's goal is to investigate how bile acids and nuclear receptors maintain metabolic homeostasis, and contribute to liver diseases, including cancer using cell-based systems and genetically engineered mouse models. Liver is a major organ that regulates metabolism of triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, amino acids, heme, xenobiotics and many more substances. One of the salient features of the liver is to make bile! Bile acids are amphiphilic detergents synthesized in liver to facilitate absorption of dietary lipids. Biliary homeostasis is critical and defects/dysfunctions in this pathway lead to several liver diseases including liver cancer.

• 25Apr

  Pharmacology Seminar by Nigel Pedersen

  Where: PINN 1-17
  Hosted by Steve Abbott, Nigel Pederson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. In the Pedersen Epilepsy and Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, we study the systems neuroscience of wakefulness and epilepsy in humans and animal models. There are two main streams of research. The first centers on the neurobiological basis of consciousness and the underlying wake-sustaining mechanisms upon which it depends (1-6); another group of projects examines brain networks in epileptic seizures, including the modulatory effects of sleep-wake circuits and networks through which seizures propagate. We study large-scale brain circuits underlying wakefulness and sleep. Using a variety of genetically encoded technologies in mice, we have recently described a new component of the brain circuit that maintains wakefulness, the supramammillary hypothalamus (3). This region exerts control over both the hippocampal network (important for certain kinds of memory formation) as well as the wake network and cerebral cortex. A unique and interesting feature of this neuronal group is the presence of a subpopulation of neurons that we described to release both inhibitory GABA and excitatory glutamate on to a key population of hippocampal neurons - dentate granule cells (3). These neurons are sparsely firing neurons that...