Speakers
Chair of the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Biosciences Graduate Program
Details
Injured and healthy neurons reveal their inner microtubules with some help from flies and fluorescence
Most neurons are cannot be replaced and so their survival for a lifetime is critical for your survival. To understand how neurons maintain long thin axons and dendrites over time we focus on microtubules. Most new neuronal components are made in the cell body and need to be transported to their site of action in axons or dendrites along microtubules, so understanding how microtubules maintain their organization over long time periods despite being dynamic polymers is central to understanding neuronal health. In addition, microtubules play important roles in axon and dendrite degeneration and in axon regeneration.
We use Drosophila as a model system to understand neuronal survival and injury responses. The genetic tools of Drosophila allow us to manipulate neurons easily, and with live imaging we can assay microtubule organization, as well as degeneration and regeneration in whole animals.