| Susan.Patterson received her Ph.D. in Physiology
and Psychology from the University of Washington in Seattle
in 1993. She was a post-doctoral fellow and then a research
associate with Dr. Eric Kandel at the Center for Neurobiology
and Behavior at Columbia University before joining the Psychology
Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004.
Dr. Patterson’s main research interests center around
the contributions of members of the nerve growth factor family
of proteins (collectively called the neurotrophins) to experience-dependent
changes in brain function. These types of changes underlie
a variety of important brain processes, including the refinement
of connections between nerve cells during development, learning,
and memory storage. Experience-dependent changes in the efficacy
of connections between nerve cells (synaptic plasticity) probably
also contribute to the pathology and treatment of brain disorders
as diverse as epilepsy, schizophrenia, depression, and drug
addiction. Dr. Patterson’s research on neurotrophins
falls into three broad categories: (1) Basic cell biology
- where and how do the neurotrophins work? (2) Questions of
context - the existence of multiple forms of synaptic plasticity
with distinct molecular mechanisms suggests that they may
be invoked under different circumstances (perhaps by changing
behavioral or attentional states) and regulated by different
neurotransmitters or growth factors. What characterizes neurotrophin-dependent
plasticity at the cellular and systems levels? (3) Possible
links between disease and dysfunction – what happens
when neurotrophin signaling is impaired?
Selected Publications:
S. L. Patterson, L. M. Grover, P. A. Schwartzkroin and M.
Bothwell. Activity dependent changes in neurotrophin expression
in rat hippocampal slices - induction of LTP in CA1 evokes
increases in BDNF and NT-3 mRNAs. Neuron 9:1081-1088, 1992.
S. L. Patterson, T. Abel, T. A. S. Deuel, K. C. Martin, J.
C. Rose and E. R. Kandel. Recombinant BDNF rescues deficits
in basal synaptic transmission and hippocampal LTP in BDNF
knockout mice. Neuron 16:1137-1145, 1996.
C. T. Drake, T. A. Milner, and S. L. Patterson. Ultrastructural
localization of full-length TrkB immunoreactivity in rat hippocampus
suggests multiple roles in modulating activity-dependent synaptic
plasticity. J. Neuroscience 19(18):8009-8026, 1999.
S. L. Patterson, C. Pittenger, A. Morozov, K. C. Martin, H.
Scanlin, C. T. Drake and E. R. Kandel. Some forms of cAMP-mediated
long lasting potentiation are associated with release of BDNF
and nuclear translocation of MAP kinase. Neuron 32:123-140,
2001.
S. S. Zakharenko, S. L Patterson, I. Dragatsis, S. O. Zeitlin,
S. A. Siegelbaum, E. R. Kandel, A. Morozov. Presynaptic BDNF
required for a presynaptic but not postsynaptic component
of LTP at hippocampal CA1-CA3 synapses. Neuron 39: 975-990,
2003.
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