Sasha Nelson & Gina Turrigiano

The Nelson and Turrigiano laboratories have collaborated for the past six years on physiological studies of synaptic plasticity in visual cortex. Their laboratories are adjoining and include shared space.

Collaborative experiments uncovered a novel form of synaptic plasticity, termed "synaptic scaling" described initially in a publication in Nature. Subsequent studies have focused on the mechanisms of scaling and its impact on AMPA vs. NMDA receptor mediated glutamatergic transmission which has led to two additional publications in Neuron.

Collaborations have allowed investigations begun in a dissociated culture system developed in the Turrigiano lab to be extended to more intact preparations. For example, in a study which appeared in Neuron, a graduate student in the Turrigiano lab showed that AMPA and NMDA current amplitudes were highly correlated at synapses in culture, while a trainee demonstrated a nearly identical level of correlation at synapses onto visual cortical neurons in slices.

Dr. Nelson has assisted a postdoc in the Turrigiano lab, with intraocular TTX injections in order to test the hypothesis that scaling occurs in vivo.