Venkatesh Murthy

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Harvard University
Biological Laboratories, Room 2065
16 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

tel: (617) 496-4833; fax: (617) 495-9300
Email: vnmurthy@fas.harvard.edu
website: http://www.mcb.harvard.edu/Murthy/


Synaptic Circuits and Experience-Dependent Plasticity

The vast capacity of the brain to process and store information arises from the large number of neurons and their synaptic connectivity. Research in my laboratory is motivated by general questions of how synapses operate and how they contribute to information processing and adaptation in circuits. While much of our past research has been in simple and accessible model systems in vitro, our current and future work centers on intact circuits in the rodent brain.

We continue to investigate mechanisms underlying activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in the rodent hippocampus, with an emphasis on inhibitory synapses.

The rodent olfactory brain (the olfactory bulb and piriform cortex) is now a target of significant effort in my lab. We develop and use novel optical and physiological methods in the living animal to seek answers to the following general questions: 1. How is odor information represented in the early stages of the olfactory system? 2. What is the logic of functional synaptic circuits in the early stages of the olfactory system? 3. How is information processing affected by different brain states - sleep, wakefulness and neuromodulation? 4. How are functional circuits in the olfactory system regulated by odor experience?

Selected Publications:

Burrone, J., O'Byrne, M. and Murthy, V.N. (2002). Multiple forms of synaptic plasticity triggered by selective suppression of activity in single neurons. Nature 420: 414-418.

Murthy, V.N. and De Camilli, P. (2003). Cell biology of the presynaptic terminal. Ann. Rev. Neurosci. 26: 701-728.

Li, Z.*, Burrone, J.*, Tyler, W.J., Hartman, K.N., Albeanu, D.F. and Murthy, V.N. (2005). Synaptic vesicle recycling studied using transgenic mice expressing synaptopHluorin. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 6131-6136. * - equal contributors.

Hartman, K.N.*, Pal, S.K.*, Burrone, J. and Murthy, V.N. (2006). Activity-dependent regulation of inhibitory synaptic transmission in hippocampal neurons. Nature Neuroscience 9: 642-649. * - equal contributors.

Tyler, W.J., Petzold, G.C., Pal, S.K. and Murthy, V.N. (2007). Experience-dependent modification of primary sensory synapses in the mammalian olfactory bulb. J. Neuroscience 27: 9427-9438.

Petzold, G.C., Albeanu, D.F., Sato, T.F., and Murthy, V.N. (2008). Coupling of neural activity to blood flow in olfactory glomeruli is mediated by astrocytic pathways. Neuron 58: 897-910.

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