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Murthy Appointed Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Cambridge, Mass. - July 27, 2007 - Venkatesh N. Murthy, who has pushed the frontiers of neuroscience by probing the workings of neural synapses from multiple perspectives, has been appointed professor of molecular and cellular biology in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective Jan. 1, 2007.
Murthy, 42, was previously Morris Kahn Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard.
"Professor Murthy is an unusually creative and inventive scientist whose work is consistently at the forefront of neurobiology," says Jeremy Bloxham, acting dean for the life sciences in FAS. "Internationally known for his breadth and interdisciplinarity, he has a rare ability to synthesize results from different fields. His colleagues have come to rely on his lucid, pristine results and his superior, cutting-edge methods. An outstanding instructor, he is an asset to the entire life sciences community at Harvard."
While the human brain's function remains shrouded in mystery, neuroscientists have come to realize that its power derives from its large number of neurons, an estimated 10 billion strong, and their intricate interconnections, numbering roughly 1,000 per neuron. Synapses, the junctions between nerve cells, lie at the intersection of different levels of neural organization; Murthy is virtually unique among his peers in that he has examined these neuronal junctions from a molecular, cellular, and systems perspective.
Murthy's experiments have elucidated mechanisms by which neuronal activity is transmitted across synapses by release of neurotransmitter molecules in packets called synaptic vesicles. He has used a probe that senses the pH in these vesicles to show that they exit and enter neurons through conventional exocytosis and endocytosis, and that they pass through multiple states of preparation before being released.
Murthy has also demonstrated how a neuron maintains homeostasis, and detects faint changes in input, amidst feedback from literally thousands of other neurons. In addition to working with cultured neurons in a dish, he has developed novel protocols to carry his research into living animals. Among other projects, he has developed a flexible fiber optic array that can measure synaptic release from olfactory receptor neurons in freely behaving mice.
Murthy holds a B.Tech. in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, awarded in 1986, and an M.S. in bioengineering and Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from the University of Washington, awarded in 1988 and 1994, respectively. He was a research associate at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., from 1994 to 1998, joining the Harvard faculty as an assistant professor in 1999. Murthy was named associate professor at Harvard in 2003.
Murthy has received honors including an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship and a Pew Scholarship in Biomedical Sciences in 2000 and the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award in 2002. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals Faculty of 1000, Trends in Neurosciences, and Current Biology.
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