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Click here to view some of Dr. Bear's most recent work
Brain Development and Disorders Project Colloquium Series
“The mGluR theory of fragile X mental retardation syndrome”
Mark F. Bear, Ph.D. Picower Professor of Neuroscience Picower Institute for Learning and Memory Massachusetts Institute of Technology Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Building Address: 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
Please RSVP to lmavros@mit.edu
Many of the diverse functional consequences of activating group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors require translation of pre-existing mRNA near synapses. One of these consequences is long-term depression (LTD) of transmission at hippocampal synapses. Loss of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), the defect responsible for fragile X syndrome in humans, increases LTD in mouse hippocampus. This finding is consistent with the growing evidence that FMRP normally functions as a repressor of translation of specific mRNAs. A theory has been developed that can account for diverse neurological and psychiatric aspects of fragile X syndrome, based on the assumption that many of the protein-synthesis-dependent functions of metabotropic receptors are exaggerated in fragile X syndrome. The theory suggests new direction for basic research as well as novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of humans with fragile X, the most frequent inherited cause of mental retardation and an identified cause of autism.
Supported by the Simons Foundation and the Anne and Paul Marcus Family Foundation |
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