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Wiring up the Nervous System: Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Neural Connectivity

2018-06-11

Venue: Room 349, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zijingang Campus

Dr. Alex L. Kolodkin is a Charles J. Homcy/Simeon G. Margolis Professor of Neuroscience, in the Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was elected as Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.

Dr. Kolodkin’s research is focused on understanding how neuronal connectivity is established during development. His lab investigates the function of extrinsic guidance cues and their receptors on axonal guidance, dendritic morphology, and synapse formation and function.

For over 20 years, his lab has investigated how neural circuits are formed and maintained through the action of guidance cues that include semaphorin proteins, their classical plexin and neuropilin receptors, and also novel receptors. His lab employs a cross phylogenetic approach, using both invertebrate and vertebrate model systems, to understand how guidance cues regulate neural circuit assembly and function.

Dr. Kolodkin has published a number of outstanding papers on Cell, Nature, Science and Neuron. He is a Board of Reviewing Editor of Science since 2014 and an associate editor of Neuron since 2004.