Visualizing Cell Signaling: Current Trends and New Technologies

If we had any decent or even adequate neurologists and hospitals this seminar would be required for all stroke medical staff to figure out how neurons signal each other to make neuroplasticity work. But alas, we have idiots instead.
http://webinar.sciencemag.org/webinar/archive/visualizing-cell-signaling
Techniques for the study of intracellular ions are used widely in biology, including for the tracking of calcium waves or ions affecting pH within living cells. The ability to monitor changes in intracellular ion concentrations over time is vital for our understanding of signaling and functional pathways in cellular systems. These pathways are central to many fundamental processes such as muscle contraction and synaptic nerve signal transmission. Ion channels that span the outer cell membrane open or close in response to extracellular and intracellular signals, potentially altering how the cell behaves. These fluctuations can be visualized and quantified using ratiometric microscopy and special fluorescent dyes designed to bind specific ions, such as the FURA-2 indicator dye specific to calcium ions. Changes in the photophysics of the dye as it binds to its target ion allows for quantitation of the bound and unbound ratio, and thus the concentration of the ion under investigation. This webinar will introduce the viewer to the current state of technology in this important field as well as cover the latest advances in microscopy for ion signaling research.
During the webinar, viewers will:

• Learn about current state-of-the-art ion signaling methodologies
• Discover what recent advances have been made in technologies for tracking ion changes, particularly calcium signaling
• Hear how experts in the field are applying these new technologies in the lab today
• Have the opportunity to ask questions of the expert panel live!

Speaker Bios

Mark Hollywood, Ph.D.

Dundalk Institute of Technology
Dundalk, Ireland

Dr. Hollywood undertook his Ph.D. at Queens University in Belfast, Ireland on the innervation of sheep mesenteric lymphatics. Following graduation in 1994, he commenced postdoctoral training in the Smooth Muscle Group and subsequently was offered a lecturer position in the Department of Physiology in 1995 and a senior lecturer post in 2001. In 2005, Dr. Hollywood together with his colleagues from the Smooth Muscle Group were recruited by Dundalk Institute of Technology to set up the Smooth Muscle Research Centre in Ireland, where he is currently a principal investigator. Dr. Hollywood’s research interests are focused on (1) developing novel ion channel modulators to treat overactive bladder and (2) examining the mechanisms underlying spontaneous activity in urethral pacemaker cells and how they modulate the bulk smooth muscle. His laboratory is currently developing a combined patch clamp/confocal microscopy system that will allow simultaneous imaging of whole-cell Ca2+ at frame rates in excess of 200 frames per second using back-illuminated EMCCD cameras, and enable correlation of this data to the resultant electrical activity observed in isolated urethral pacemaker cells.

C. Peter Bengtson, Ph.D.

University of Heidelberg
Heidelberg, Germany

Dr. Bengtson has a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Queensland, Australia.  He specializes in both patch clamp electrophysiology and wide-field microscopy from neurons in brain slices or dissociated cultures. He is currently a senior postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurobiology in the Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience (IZN) at Heidelberg University where he has worked for over a decade in the laboratory of Professor Hilmar Bading, primarily investigating the calcium signals and molecular mechanisms mediating long-term plasticity and memory.

Colin Coates, Ph.D.

Andor Technology
Belfast, Ireland

Dr. Coates holds a first-class degree in chemistry, with a postgraduate degree and postdoctoral research training from Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland, focusing primarily on time-resolved laser spectroscopic analysis of photophysical mechanisms. Dr. Coates also has experience in leading an industrial research and development team that was involved in developing novel DNA microarray technologies. Dr. Coates maintains overall product management responsibility for Andor's research and OEM camera/spectrograph business, encompassing imaging, spectroscopy, time-resolved, and X-ray product/market segments.

Moderator: Sean Sanders, Ph.D.

Science/AAAS
Washington, DC

Dr. Sanders did his undergraduate training at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, UK, supported by the Wellcome Trust. Following postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health and Georgetown University, Dr. Sanders joined TranXenoGen, a startup biotechnology company in Massachusetts working on avian transgenics. Pursuing his parallel passion for writing and editing, Dr. Sanders joined BioTechniques as an editor, before joining Science/AAAS in 2006. Currently Dr. Sanders is the Editor for Custom Publishing for the journal Science and Program Director for Outreach.

Online Resources