Abstract
There is a zone of ignorance regarding cellular and molecular complexity of nervous systems that is rarely even discussed. This complexity is generated by the presence of heteromeric ion channel complexes which have a staggering potential molecular diversity, and remain a black box of molecular neuroscience. This lecture will show how this problem can be systematically addressed using tools provided by the great biodiversity of venomous marine snail lineages. Basically, the venomous marine snails have evolved highly specific ligands targeted to specific heteromeric isoforms of ion channels and receptors.
About the speaker
Prof Baldomero Olivera received his PhD in Biophysical Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and did postdoctoral work in Biochemistry at Stanford University. He was Research Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry at University of the Philippines College of Medicine. He moved to the University of Utah in 1972, where he is currently a Distinguished Professor of Biology. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, California and at the Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines. Since 2006, he is appointed as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor.
Prof Olivera’s major research interests are in the ion channels and receptors, which mediate signaling in the nervous system. He and his research group have isolated neurotoxins from the venoms of the predatory cone snails, Conus that target specific molecular isoforms of ion channels and receptors, and are characterizing the targets of some of these peptide toxins. His present work is focused on both ligand-gated and voltage-activated ion channels. His laboratory has characterized a set of unique toxins, the omega-conotoxins, which irreversibly bind (and block) these calcium channels; an ω-conotoxin discovered in his lab is now an approved drug for pain. His impressive research on both DNA biophysics and conotoxins has enabled him to serve as an editorial board member of various scientific publications. He served as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry from 1982 to 1987, the journal of toxinology – Toxin Reviews from 1990 to 1993, and Toxicon from 2000 until the present. In addition, he was a member of the review committee of the journal Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease from 1982 to 1986. Prof Olivera has also served as a committee member of various institutions. He was a member of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of Harvard University from 1988 to 1995, the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health from 1996 to 1999, the Toxicology Advisory Committee of the Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation from 1999 to 2001, and the Searle Scholars Advisory Board from 2008 to 2011.
Prof Olivera is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the US Institute of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He was also a recipient of the Damon Runyon Fellow, the Eli Lilly Unrestricted Research Award, the American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, the Alexander van Humboldt Foundation Senior Scientist Award, and the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology. In 2007, he was named 2007 Scientist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation.
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