Johns Hopkins University, Department of Neuroscience

 


 

 

 

Seth Shatkin Margolis, PhD

Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry

Telephone Number:   (410) 502-5362

Fax Number:   410-955-5759

Johns Hopkins University

School of Medicine

Dept. of Biological Chemistry

725 North Wolfe St.

Baltimore, MD 21205

Room: 517 WBSB

smargol7@jhmi.edu

Molecular Mechanisms of Synapse Formation in Development and Disease

 

Synapses are specialized cell-cell junctions which connect individual neurons together and are the sites of transmission of information between neurons.  While the molecular mechanisms which promote synapse formation have been a subject of intense investigation, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that limit synapse formation so that synapses form at the right time and place and in the correct numbers.  We hypothesize that this step in the refinement of synaptic formation is crucial for the fine-tuning of neuronal connectivity and that signaling networks which limit synapses during development are either defective or inappropriately activated in cognitive disorders. Accordingly, our laboratory studies the signaling pathways that regulate synapse formation during normal brain development to begin to understand how, when these pathways go awry, human cognitive disorders develop.



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© 2005 Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine