Dr. Ruth Heidelberger: “Syntaxin 3B: a specialized SNARE protein required for vision”
~ Eligible for PSL1000H/PSL2000H/PSL4000Y Course Seminar Attendance ~
Speaker: Dr. Ruth Heidelberger
Frederic B Asche Chair in Ophthalomology;
Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy;
McGovern Medical School of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth)
Biography:
Dr. Heidelberger earned her undergraduate, graduate and medical degrees at Stony Brook University. As an undergraduate, Dr. Heidelberger trained in the laboratory of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dr. Paul C. Lauterbur. She then performed her doctoral research under the direction of neuroscientist Dr. Gary Matthews, where she conducted pioneering studies that elucidated calcium influx pathways and the modulation of intracellular calcium levels in the presynaptic terminals of retinal bipolar cells. Dr. Heidelberger received her postdoctoral research training in membrane biophysics under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Professor Erwin Neher at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. There, she used biophysical approaches to quantitatively describe, for the first time, the relationship between presynaptic calcium and exocytosis in a vertebrate presynaptic bouton.
Dr. Heidelberger joined the faculty of McGovern Medical School in 1996, where she currently holds the Frederic B. Asche Chair in Ophthalmology and is a tenured Full Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy. Her internationally-recognized NIH-funded laboratory investigates mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and synaptic communication in the early visual pathway and identifies modulatory sites that could potentially be manipulated for therapeutic gain.
Website: https://med.uth.edu/nba/2022/11/03/ruth-heidelberger-md-phd/
Location: MSB 2170 (in-person only)