With a Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Christine Gall will continue to elucidate the role of activity-dependent neuronal gene expression in shaping the functional properties of neuronal circuities in response to experience. By using a combination of sophisticated neuroanatomical and molecular biological techniques, Dr. Gall discovered that high frequency electrical stimulation in defined neuronal pathways alter the expression of genes encoding specific neuropeptides and neurotransmitters. For example, she has found that this activity induces changes in the genomic expression of a major subclass of glutamate receptors within the hippocampus, an area critical for the formation of memories. She is now beginning to unravel the clues about the mechanisms of neuropeptide regulation by examining more rapid, transcriptional events. With this award, she will concentrate on understanding how this physiological activity alters the regulation of immediate-early genes which then encode the proteins that mediate neuropeptide regulation. Moreover, she extend the anatomical work by developing electrophysiological approaches which enable her to examine the functional consequences of the change in gene expression within specific neuronal circuitry for neuropeptides, neurotransmitters and, more recently, neurotropic factors. Indeed this Award will permit her to explore the significance of her seminal finding that nerve growth factor is modulated in adult mammalian brain. This work leads to a more thorough understanding of the functional organization and the plasticity of the nervous system.
