Simon Alford received a BSc. in Zoology from the University of Bristol in 1984 and a PhD. in Physiology from the University of London in 1988

His research focuses on presynaptic control of neurotransmission and effects on motor control and synaptic physiology.

Publication highlights:

Alford S. & Grillner S. (1991). The involvement of GABAB receptors and coupled G proteins in spinal GABAergic presynaptic inhibition. J. Neurosci 11, 3718-3726 

Bashir ZI, Alford S, Davies SN, Randall AD & Collingridge GL. (1991). Long-term potentiation of NMDA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission in the hippocampus. Nature 349, 156-158. 

Alford S, Frenguelli BG, Schofield JG. & Collingridge GL. (1993). Characterisation of Ca2+  signals induced in hippocampal CA1 neurones by the synaptic activation of NMDA receptors. J. Physiol (London) 469, 693-716. 

Blackmer T, Larsen E, Takahashi M, Martin TFJ, Alford S. & Hamm HE. (2001) Heterotrimeric G protein Gbetagamma subunits mediate presynaptic inhibition by regulating exocytotic fusion downstream of Ca2+ entry. Science, 292:293-297 

Gerachshenko T, Blackmer T, Yoon EJ, Bartleson C, Hamm HE, Alford S. (2005)  Gbetagamma acts at the C terminus of SNAP-25 to mediate presynaptic inhibition. Nature Neuroscience 8: 597-605. 

Smetana R, Juvin L, Dubuc R, Alford S. (2010) A parallel cholinergic brainstem pathway for enhancing locomotor drive. Nature Neuroscience. 2010 13:731-738. 

Ryczko D, Grätsch  F, Auclair F, Dubé C, Bergeron S,  Alpert M, Cone J, Roitman M, Alford S, Dubuc R. (2013) Forebrain dopamine neurons project down to a brainstem region controlling locomotion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 110(34): E3235-3242. 

Ramachandran, S Rodriguez, M Potcoava, S Alford (2022) Single calcium channel nanodomains drive presynaptic calcium entry at lamprey reticulospinal presynaptic terminals. Journal of Neuroscience 42 (12), 2385-2403. 

Complete list of publications:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/simon.alford.1/bibliography/public/

Mariana Potcoava received a BS in Physics from the University of Bucharest in 1994, an MSc in Photonics from the  Politechnica University, Bucharest in 1998, an MS in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Michigan in 2003 and a PhD from the University of South Florida in 2009. 

Her research focuses on the development of holography in fluorescence microscopy to improve high speed live cell imaging and to understand pathological changes in synaptic function in the brain during aging.

Publication highlights:

Wallace JN, Crockford ZC, Román-Vendrell C, Brady EB, Hoffmann C, Vargas KJ, Potcoava M, Wegman ME, Alford ST, Milovanovic D, Morgan JR. Excess phosphoserine-129 α-synuclein induces synaptic vesicle trafficking and declustering defects at a vertebrate synapse. Mol Biol Cell. 2024 Jan 1;35(1):ar10. doi: 10.1091/mbc. E23-07-0269. Epub 2023 Nov 22. PubMed PMID: 37991902.

Mariana Potcoava, Donatella Contini, Zachary Zurawski, Spencer Huynh, Christopher Mann, Jonathan Art, Simon Alford, “Live cell light sheet imaging with low and high spatial coherence detection approaches reveals spatiotemporal aspects of neuronal signaling”, J. Imaging 2023, 9(6), 121;https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging9060121, (invited).

Alford, S.; Mann, C.; Art, J.; Potcoava, M. Incoherent color holography lattice light-sheet for subcellular imaging of dynamic structures. Frontiers in Photonics 2023, 4, 1096294, doi:10.3389/fphot.2023.1096294, (invited).

Potcoava, M.; Mann, C.; Art, J.; Alford, S. Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy using Incoherent Light Detection, in Proceedings of the Holography Meets Advanced Manufacturing, 20–22 February 2023, MDPI: Basel, Switzerland, https://doi.org/10.3390/HMAM2-14156; (invited).

Mariana Potcoava, Christopher Mann, Jonathan Art, and Simon Alford, "Spatio-temporal performance in an incoherent holography lattice light-sheet microscope (IHLLS)," Opt. Express 29, 23888-23901 (2021).

Rosen, J.; Alford, S.; Anand, V.; Art, J.; Bouchal, P.; Bouchal, Z.; Erdenebat, M.-U.; Huang, L.; Ishii, A.; Juodkazis, S.; Kim, N.; Kner, P.; Koujin, T.; Kozawa, Y.; Liang, D.; Liu, J.; Mann, C.; Marar, A.; Matsuda, A.; Nobukawa, T.; Nomura, T.; Oi, R.; Potcoava, M.; Tahara, T.; Thanh, B.L.; Zhou, H. Roadmap on Recent Progress in FINCH Technology. J. Imaging 2021, 7, 197; (invited).

Mariana C. Potcoava, Gregory L. Futia, Isabel R. Schlaepfer, Emily A. Gibson, Lipid profiling using Raman and a modified support vector machine algorithm, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 10.1002/jrs.6238 (IF3.133), (2021).

MC. Potcoava, GL Futia, J Aughenbaugh, IR Schlaepfer, EA Gibson (2014) Raman and CARS microscopy studies of changes in lipid content and composition in hormone-treated breast and prostate cancer cells. J Biomed Opt. 19(11): 111605.

Complete list of publications:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/mariana.potcoava.1/bibliography/public/

Shoko Sagoshi received a 

My research focuses on regulatory mechanisms of the activity of secretory cells

Three areas of focus are:  1) Mouse models of impaired GPCR signaling at synapses:  to understand the consequences of the different pathways utilized by Gi/o-coupled GPCRs, we have developed two publicly available mouse models of impaired Gbg-SNARE pathway signaling: the global/surjective SNAP25D3 homozygote model, an easy-to-use viable mouse model in which all cells in the body express the mutant SNAP25 isoform insensitive to Gbg-mediated inhibition, and the new conditional SNAP25miniD3 model, which permits spatiotemporal control over whether wild-type SNAP25 or SNAP25D3 is expressed utilizing Cre driver lines.    

2) Imaging of secreted neurotransmitters and other cellular factors using genetically encoded biosensors in tandem with lattice light sheet microscopy for high temporal resolution and sensitivity.    We have identified that the SNAP25D3  homozygote mouse exhibits profound resistance to diet-induced obesity and browning of adipose tissue and improved insulin action.   We have an active collaboration with the laboratory of Yulong Li, Ph.D to implement the GPCR Activation-Based (GRAB) family of genetically encoded biosensors.   With the norepinephrine biosensor GRAB-NE,  we can visualize evoked norepinephrine activity at neuroadipose junctions in high detail.   Using this technique, the beneficial metabolic phenotypes of SNAP25 is contemporaneous with both elevated norepinephrine content and elevated release in adipose tissue.    I am currently working to differentiate between peripheral and central effects of SNAP25D3  , and whether selective ablation of the pathway in adipose tissue is sufficient to recapitulate these effects, providing a basis to investigate a new class of obesity therapies. 

 3) Identifying new nexuses of regulation for controlling exocytosis in secretory cells:  while the action of Gbg on the SNARE protein SNAP25 at the presynaptic terminal is well-understood, neurotransmitter release is one of many instances of exocytosis in the human body.   We are identifying roles for other SNARE proteins beyond SNAP25, such as SNAP23,  in the Gbg-SNARE pathway, but also other forms of exocytosis where the pathway may be critical, such as for the postsynaptic trafficking of ion-channels critical to the induction of long-term potentiation in neurons.

Publication Highlights:

Ceddia RP, Zurawski Z, Thompson Gray AD, Adegboye F, Shi F, Liu D, Maldonado J, Ayala JE, McGuinness OP, Collins S, Alford S, Hamm HE.  Removing the Gβγ-SNAP25 brake on exocytosis enhances insulin action, promotes adipocyte browning, and protects against diet-induced obesity.  J Clin Invest 2023 Oct 2;133(19):e160617. doi: 10.1172/JCI160617. PMID: 37561580

Zurawski Z, Huynh S, Kaya A, Hyde K, Hamm HE, Alford S.  G protein βγ subunits bind to and inhibit the function of multiple Qa- and Qb,c-SNARE isoforms.  Zurawski Z, Huynh S, Kaya A, Hyde K, Hamm HE, Alford S. [Preprint]on biorxIV at https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.30.494040

Zurawski Z, Thompson Gray AD, Brady LJ, Page B, Church E, Harris NA, Dohn MR, Yim YY, Hyde K, Mortlock DP, Jones CK, Winder DG, Alford S, Hamm HE. Disabling the Gβγ-SNARE interaction disrupts GPCR-mediated presynaptic inhibition, leading to physiological and behavioral phenotypes. Sci Signal. 2019 Feb 19;12(569)PubMed PMID : 30783011.

Complete list of publications: