Synaptic Transmission in the Mammalian Inner Retina

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DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): The following is a research and training plan that I will conduct first in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Diamond in the Synaptic Physiology Unit of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the Bethesda campus of the National Institutes of Health and later in my own laboratory. My primary research interest is the physiology of synaptic transmission: specifically, the pre- and postsynaptic factors that determine the time course of information transfer between two neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). My long-term career goal is to be a principal investigator at a research university, overseeing a laboratory that uses electrophysiological and fluorescence imaging techniques to answer questions about the fundamental properties of synapses. The short term objective of my training with Dr. Diamond is to learn to develop quantitative descriptions and models of excitatory synaptic transmission in the mammalian retina, focusing on dyad synapses made by rod bipolar cells onto two types of amacrine cell: the AII and the A17. This component of the mammalian rod pathway will serve as the experimental model around which inquiry, in my own laboratory is structured initially. The proposed research project will encompass three specific aims: 1) To determine the factors that govern the timing of glutamate release from the rod bipolar cell, 2) to understand how the postsynaptic properties of the amacrine cells shape the time course and strength of post-synaptic responses, 3) to investigate how signals that originate in the AII amacrine cell are altered when propagated through gap junctions to other AII amacrine and cone bipolar cells.