[SLST Seminar] The mechanism of neurotransmitter release at synapses

ON2022-11-01TAG: ShanghaiTech UniversityCATEGORY: Lecture

Topic: The mechanism of neurotransmitter release at synapses

Speaker: James Rothman, Distinguished Adjunct Professor of ShanghaiTech University, 2013 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine

Date and time: November 4, 13:30-15:00

Venue: Tencent Meeting, meeting ID: 718-439-836 

Abstract:

Sub-millisecond release of neurotransmitters sets the pace of information processing in the brain, and represents evolution to the limits of physical chemistry. The key physical principle is mechanical coupling of SNARE proteins embedded in locally rigid bilayers. Co-operativity is enhanced by a tightly choreographed process of vesicle capture and activation as the SNARE-assembling chaperone Munc13 ratchets the vesicle successively closer to the plasma membrane, coordinating the assembly of a ready-release synaptic vesicle.