Event

BBI-Kavli Distinguished Speaker Series: Dr. Marina Picciotto

Tuesday, April 12, 2022
10:00 a.m.
Virtual on Zoom
http://go.umd.edu/q8B

Speaker: Marina Picciotto (Yale University)

Title: "Stress-induced acetylcholine signaling in the hippocampus: Too much of a good thing?"

Abstract: Acetylcholine (ACh) is a critical neurotransmitter important for communication in the autonomic nervous system (fight-or-flight response) and in the brain. We know that stress increases release of ACh and that pharmacological blockade of ACh breakdown induces symptoms of depression in human subjects and increases stress-related behaviors in rodents. In addition, radioligand imaging in human subjects has shown that ACh levels are elevated when unipolar and bipolar individuals are actively depressed. In our laboratory we have found that pharmacological or molecular genetic manipulations of ACh signaling through ACh esterase, nicotinic (nAChRs) or muscarinic (mAChRs) in hippocampus is sufficient to recapitulate effects of systemic modulation of the cholinergic system on stress-induced behaviors in mice. In ongoing studies, we have altered cholinergic input to the hippocampus using chemogenetic and optogenetic strategies, coupled with pharmacological approaches. These studies demonstrate that ACh signaling from the medial septum to the dorsal and ventral hippocampus increases susceptibility for behavioral responses to acute and chronic stress in mice. These data demonstrate that ACh signaling in the hippocampus is critical for mediating behavioral responses to stressful stimuli and support the hypothesis that dysregulated ACh signaling contributes to stress-related disorders in depressed patients. 

Bio: Marina Picciotto joined the Yale faculty in 1995, after completing a postdoctoral fellowship with Jean- Pierre Changeux in the Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Prior to this, Dr. Picciotto earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Neurobiology at The Rockefeller University in New York City in 1992 and a B.S. degree in biological sciences from Stanford University in 1985. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Neuroscience and is a member of the ACNP Scientific Council. Among other honors, Dr. Picciotto has been awarded the Human Frontiers 10th Anniversary Award, the Jacob P. Waletzky Award for addiction research and the Bernice Grafstein Mentorship award from the Society for Neuroscience, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for Innovative Research and the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences.

Dr. Picciotto's seminar will be followed by a workshop: "Publishing in the Journal of Neuroscience: Lessons from the Editor-in-Chief"