Key Dates

21 July 2013
On site registration opens

Further key dates

Eric Gouaux

Oregon Health & Science University
United States

For publication in the Journal of Physiology

The work in the Gouaux Lab is concentrated on developing molecular mechanisms for the function of receptors and transporters at chemical synapses. At chemical synapses, neurotransmitters released from one neuron diffuse throughout a small space—the synaptic cleft—to receptors on adjacent neurons. At many synapses, the neurotransmitter binds to a receptor that is a ligand-gated ion channel, and this binding event leads to the opening of a transmembrane pore, which in turn results in depolarization of the nerve cell and generation of an electrical signal. Neurotransmitter transporters surrounding the synapse clear the transmitters from the cleft by coupling the thermodynamically unfavorable uptake to the favorable co-transport of one or more sodium ions.
 
Glutamate, glycine and the biogenic amines are neurotransmitters of particular significance and currently we are focusing our efforts on eukaryotic glutamate receptors and on bacterial homologs of the transporters for glutamate, glycine and the biogenic amines. While our primary tool is x-ray crystallography, we also utilize electrophysiology as well as other biophysical and biochemical methods.

Annual Review Prize Lecture (The Physiological Society & The Journal of Physiology)
11.45 - 12.45
The molecular mechanisms of signaling at chemical synapses
Plenary lecture
Theme: 
Epithelia & Membrane Transport
Topic: 
Epithelia & Membrane Transport
Lecture Theatre: 
Hall 1 (The ICC)