James Rothman, PhD, director of the Nanobiology Institute at Yale University, will deliver a Discovery Lecture on Thursday, Oct. 3. His presentation, “New Insights Into Basic Mechanisms of Synaptic Neurotransmission,” begins at 4 p.m. in 208 Light Hall and will also be livestreamed.
Rothman, the Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine, discovered key molecular machinery involved in the movement of materials between compartments inside cells. The delivery system, which involves tiny membrane-bound vesicles that ferry enclosed cargo, is fundamental for cell physiology and is involved in diverse processes including nerve cell communication, insulin release into the blood and virus entry into cells.
Rothman reconstituted vesicle budding and fusion in a cell-free system, discovered the complex of SNARE proteins that mediate membrane fusion, and uncovered the GTPase-switch mechanism that controls coated vesicle budding.
He shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.”
Rothman has also received the Lasker Basic Science Award, the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, the Massry Prize and the E.B. Wilson Medal. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.
In his Discovery Lecture, Rothman will discuss recent studies on the ultrafast release of neurotransmitters at synapses that have revealed “surprising mechanistic insights into the extraordinary speed of the process and the structures underpinning it,” according to the lecture program.
His lecture is sponsored by the Department of Pharmacology. For a complete schedule of Discovery Lectures, archived video of previous lectures, and the livestream link, go to https://www.vumc.org/discovery-lecture-series/upcoming-lectures.
