Building the axonal cytoskeleton

October 3, 2024 @ 11:00 am to 12:00 pm

Shaul Yogev, Yale University

008 Mueller Laboratory
University Park

Abstract:
Neuronal function and survival rely on the axonal cytoskeleton, a highly ordered ensemble of microtubule polymers, filamentous actin, and spectrin tetramers. While the biophysical properties and atomic-level structures of these molecules are well understood in vitro, how they form patterned higher-order structures in axons remains poorly defined. I will describe our recent work on the delivery of cytoskeletal proteins to axons and our ongoing research into the mechanisms controlling microtubule distribution via a mechano-transduction signaling pathway. These studies are part of our broader goal to understand cytoskeletal dynamics during neuronal development, maintenance, and degeneration.

About the Speaker:
Shaul Yogev completed his undergraduate studies in Paris VI and Paris VII universities, including a short internship with Marek Mlodzik at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. As a PhD student in the lab of Benny Shilo at the Weizmann Institute, he studied EGFR signaling during eye development in Drosophila, uncovering a mechanism for polarized secretion of the EGF ligand from nascent photoreceptor neurons. Shaul joined the lab of Kang Shen at Stanford for his postdoc, where he developed imaging and analysis methods to determine the organization of axonal microtubules in C. elegans. He started his lab in the Dept of Neuroscience at Yale in 2018, where is currently an Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology. His lab studies the neuronal cytoskeleton and axonal transport using genetics, imaging and biochemistry. For his work he has been awarded a Bohmfalk Scholar prize, an NIH New Innovator award and fellowships from the Human Frontiers, EMBO and the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience.

Contact

Melissa Rolls
mur22@psu.edu