Gabriela Popescu

University at Buffalo - US

Gabriela K. Popescu is a professor of biochemistry and neuroscience at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, an honorary Fellow of the AAAS, and the President of the Biophysical Society. Her research focuses on mechanisms of activation and modulation of NMDA receptors.

NMDA receptors are the main source of post-synaptic calcium at synapses in brain and spinal cord; they are glutamate-gated excitatory channels with critical control over fundamental brain processes such as synaptic formation, maintenance, and plasticity. They have been implicated in myriad physiological brain functions, including learning, memory, and cognition, and mediate a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions, including acute and chronic neurodegeneration, addiction, chronic pain, epilepsy, and schizophrenia.

Zinc exerts fast, direct, reversible, and subtype-specific control over the currents produced by NMDA receptors. Two mechanisms have been described so far. An allosteric effect on gating kinetics results in decreased channel open probability. In addition, zinc can compete with permeating sodium and calcium resulting in open-channel block. In this lecture, Dr. Popescu will present unpublished data showing that zinc controls not only channel kinetics and channel accessibility by permeant ions, but also the fraction of calcium that passes through the channel. She will also discuss how this discovery can be leveraged for scientific and therapeutic gain.