MONDAY, MAY 21 - 2012, 3:30 pm PST/6:30 pm EST

Steven Finkbeiner, MD, PhD 

Director, Taube-Koret Center for

Huntington's Disease Research

Senior Investigator and Associate Director,

Gladstone Institute of neurological Disease

Professor of Neurology and Physiology,

University of California, San Francisco

Areas of Investigation

Research in his laboratory focuses on molecular mechanisms of plasticity and neurodegeneration. A long- term goal of his research is to understand how neuronal activity elicits changes in gene expression that are important for learning and memory and aims to understand how an inherited genetic mutation leads to neuronal dysfunction and degeneration in Huntington's disease (HD).

Dr. Finkbeiner will be with us to give us his research updates.

Ongoing Studies

C-terminus of the NMDA receptor couple Ca2+influx

Gene targets of the NMDA receptor

Subsynaptic protein translation in learning and memory

Polyglutamine expansion degeneration in neurons

Ubiquitination and proteasome function in  

   neurodegeneration

Normal function of huntingtin

Predictors of neurodegeneration