NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2001

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This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY2001. The goal of the fellowship is to prepare minority scientists for positions of scientific leadership in academia and industry. To attain this goal, the fellowship provides opportunities for postdoctoral training of the highest quality to recent doctoral recipients. This program is an effort by the NSF to increase the number of research scientists from underrepresented minority groups, thereby contributing to the future vitality of the Nation's scientific enterprise. It is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training of the future workforce.The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Investigating the Merging of Ionotropic and Metabotropic Signals at the Ionotropic Kainate Receptors." Neurotransmission at chemical synapses is carried out by two distinct classes of receptors- ionotropic and metabotropic. Ionotropic receptors are ligand-gated ion channels that respond to neurotransmitters by allowing ion flux across cell membranes. Metabotropic receptors, however, mediate neurotransmission less directly by activating second messenger molecules which subsequently modulate cellular communication. Contemporary models of neurotransmission maintain that the signals evoked by ionotropic and metabotropic receptors are autonomous and exclusive. Recent data, however, suggests that kainate receptors, members of the ionotropic glutamate receptor family, may be capable of initiating both ionotropic and metabotropic signals. This research is elucidating the merging of these distinct signaling pathways by (1) reconstituting the putative pathway in a heterologous expression system; and (2) identifying proteins that directly interact with the ionotropic kainate receptors as potential mediators of metabotropic coupling. These aims are being achieved by utilizing Xenopus oocyte expression and yeast two-hybrid screening, respectively.