The Hermann Staudinger Lectures are a series of talks initiated by the former FRIAS School of Soft Matter Research in 2008. FRIAS invites international Nobel Laureates to give a lecture in Freiburg two to three times a year. The lecture series is named after Nobel Laureate Hermann Staudinger who taught at the University of Freiburg from 1926–1951 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1953.
This lecture is open to the public.
Date: 5th September 2014 Time: 18:00 - 19:00
Venue: Lecture Hall Otto-Krayer-Haus, Albertstraße 25, 79104 Freiburg
17th Hermann Staudinger Lecture with Nobel Prize Laureate Erwin Neher
"Modulation of Short-Term Plasticity at the Calyx of Held Synapse"
Short-term plasticity is highly modulated by second messengers, such as Ca++ and diacylglycerol (DAG). At the Calyx of Held, there is pronounced heterogeneity between individual synapses, some showing moderate to strong depression during stimulus trains of 100 Hz or 200 Hz, others displaying a sequence of facilitation and depression. After application of phorbol ester, mimicking the effect of DAG, EPSCs are enlarged and strong depression is observed only. Lee and colleagues showed (2013, PNAS) that application of DAG accelerates a process, which they termed ‘superpriming’, a slow transition of release-ready vesicles from a ‘normally’ primed state to a faster, ‘superprimed’ one. Some evidence will be shown, which suggests that the heterogeneity between synapses is due to different degrees of ‘superpriming’ at rest.
More information on the Hermann Staudinger Lectures Series.
08/2014
