FAW: Activity-Regulated Trophic Factor Expression

FAW：活性调节的营养因子表达

• 批准号: 9024143
• 负责人: Christine Gall
• 金额: $ 25.5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-11-01 至 1997-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9024143&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: FAW; Activity; Regulated; Trophic; Factor

With a Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Christine Gall will continue to elucidate the role of activity-dependent neuronal gene expression in shaping the functional properties of neuronal circuities in response to experience. By using a combination of sophisticated neuroanatomical and molecular biological techniques, Dr. Gall discovered that high frequency electrical stimulation in defined neuronal pathways alter the expression of genes encoding specific neuropeptides and neurotransmitters. For example, she has found that this activity induces changes in the genomic expression of a major subclass of glutamate receptors within the hippocampus, an area critical for the formation of memories. She is now beginning to unravel the clues about the mechanisms of neuropeptide regulation by examining more rapid, transcriptional events. With this award, she will concentrate on understanding how this physiological activity alters the regulation of immediate-early genes which then encode the proteins that mediate neuropeptide regulation. Moreover, she extend the anatomical work by developing electrophysiological approaches which enable her to examine the functional consequences of the change in gene expression within specific neuronal circuitry for neuropeptides, neurotransmitters and, more recently, neurotropic factors. Indeed this Award will permit her to explore the significance of her seminal finding that nerve growth factor is modulated in adult mammalian brain. This work leads to a more thorough understanding of the functional organization and the plasticity of the nervous system.

Christine Gall博士获得了美国国家科学基金会颁发的女性科学家和工程师教师奖，她将继续阐明活动依赖的神经元基因表达在塑造神经元回路响应经验的功能特性中的作用。通过结合复杂的神经解剖学和分子生物学技术，Gall博士发现，在特定的神经通路中，高频电刺激会改变编码特定神经肽和神经递质的基因的表达。例如，她发现这种活动诱导了海马体中谷氨酸受体主要亚类的基因组表达的变化，海马体是记忆形成的关键区域。她现在开始通过研究更快速的转录事件来解开神经肽调节机制的线索。有了这个奖项，她将专注于了解这种生理活动如何改变即时早期基因的调节，然后编码介导神经肽调节的蛋白质。此外，她通过发展电生理学方法扩展了解剖工作，使她能够检查特定神经回路中神经肽、神经递质和最近的神经营养因子的基因表达变化的功能后果。事实上，这个奖项将允许她探索她的开创性发现的意义，即神经生长因子在成年哺乳动物大脑中被调节。这项工作使我们对神经系统的功能组织和可塑性有了更深入的了解。