Synaptic Transmission in the Mammalian Inner Retina

描述（由申请人提供）：以下是一项研究， 我将首先在国立卫生研究院贝塞斯达校区的国立神经疾病和中风研究所（NINDS）突触生理学单位的杰弗里·戴蒙德博士的实验室进行，然后在我自己的实验室进行。我的主要研究兴趣是突触传递的生理学：具体来说，是决定中枢神经系统（CNS）中两个神经元之间信息传递时间过程的突触前和突触后因素。我的长期职业目标是成为一所研究型大学的首席研究员，监督一个使用电生理和荧光成像技术来回答有关突触基本特性的问题的实验室。 我与戴蒙德博士的短期培训目标是学习开发 哺乳动物视网膜兴奋性突触传递的定量描述和模型，重点是由杆双极细胞到两种类型的无长突细胞：AII和A17的二分体突触。哺乳动物视杆细胞通路的这个组成部分将作为实验模型，在我自己的实验室里，围绕这个模型进行初步的研究。拟议的研究项目将包括三个具体目标：1）确定控制谷氨酸从视杆双极细胞释放的时间的因素，2）理解无长突细胞的突触后特性如何塑造突触后反应的时间过程和强度，3）研究起源于AII无长突细胞的信号如何通过缝隙连接传播到其他AII无长突细胞和锥双极细胞。

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.