Roles of Calcium Pulses, Waves and Gradients in Early Development

Jaffe博士将继续探索细胞内游离钙脉冲、波和梯度在胚胎发育模式、胞质分裂和受精中的作用。他的主要目的是发现和描述在进化中保守的时空钙模式，并探索它们的发育作用和机制。他将这些模式可视化的主要方法将是注射化学发光的钙特异性蛋白质，称为aequorins。他还将使用振动的钙离子特定电极来探索通过细胞表面的钙电流模式。他将继续在岩藻、海鞘、非洲爪哇和青黛卵以及其他一些系统中进行这一探索。改变这些钙模式，从而探索其作用的主要方法之一将是通过注入适当的钙缓冲剂来抑制它们。Jaffe博士还将通过适当应用钙通道阻滞剂和激动剂以及钙离子载体来改变这种模式。这项研究应该被证明在理解细胞发育方面具有广泛的价值，因为钙离子属于相对较小的一类物质(如氢离子、三磷酸腺苷、环状AMP、IP3等)。它们的细胞内模式是细胞内生理控制机制的中心。

Dr. Jaffe will continue to explore the roles of free cytosolic calcium pulses, waves and gradients in the development of embryological pattern, in cytokinesis as well as in fertilization. His broad purpose is to discover and describe spatiotemporal calcium patterns which have been conserved in evolution and to explore their developmental roles and mechanisms. His main method for visualizing these patterns will be to inject chemiluminescent, calcium specific proteins called aequorins. He will also use vibrating calcium specific electrodes to explore patterns of calcium currents through cell surfaces. He will continue this exploration in fucoid, ascidian, Xenopus and medaka eggs as well as in some other systems. One of the main methods for modifying, and thus for exploring the role of, these calcium patterns will be to suppress them by injecting appropriate calcium buffers. Dr. Jaffe will also modify such patterns via appropriate applications of calcium channel blockers and agonists as well as calcium ionophores. This enterprise should prove to be of broad value in understanding cell development because calcium ions are among a relatively small class of small substances (like hydrogen ions, ATP, cyclic AMP, IP3, etc.) whose intracellular patterns are central to the physiological control mechanisms within cells.