Richard L. Huganir

Last updated
Richard L. Huganir
Born (1953-03-25) March 25, 1953 (age 71)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Vassar College (B.S., 1975)
Cornell University (Ph.D., 1982)
Scientific career
Fields Neuroscience
Institutions Johns Hopkins University
Academic advisors Efraim Racker

Richard Lewis [1] Huganir (born March 25, 1953) is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience [2] and Psychological and Brain Sciences, [3] Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, [4] and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Brain Science Institute [5] at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has joint appointments in the Department of Biological Chemistry [6] and the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences [7] in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. [8]

Contents

Biography

Huganir completed his undergraduate work in biochemistry at Vassar College [9] in 1975. He received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell University [10] in 1982 where he performed his thesis research in the laboratory of Efraim Racker.  He was a postdoctoral fellow with the Nobel Laureate, Paul Greengard, at Yale University School of Medicine from 1982-1984. Huganir then moved to the Rockefeller University where he was an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology from 1984-1988. Huganir moved to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1988 as an Associate Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Huganir was an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1988-2014. Huganir became the Director or the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience in 2006.

Huganir is currently the Chair of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research Scientific Advisory Committee and a recent member of the NIMH Council and the NIH BRAIN Multi-Council Working Group. Huganir is the past President of the Society for Neuroscience and has served as Treasurer of the Society for Neuroscience. [11]

Research

Huganir's career has focused on synapses, the connections between nerve cells, in the brain. Huganir's general approach has been to study molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate neurotransmitter receptors. Huganir's studies have shown that the regulation of receptor function is a major mechanism for the regulation of neuronal excitability and connectivity in the brain and is critical for many higher brain processes including learning and memory and the proper development of the brain and is a major determinant of behavior. Moreover, dysregulation of these mechanisms underlie many neurological and psychiatric diseases in several neurological and psychiatric disorders including Alzheimer's, ALS, schizophrenia, autism, intellectual disability, PTSD as well as in chronic pain and drug addiction. [12]

Publications

Huganir has published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals. [13] He has more than 71,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 145.

Selected Publications

Honors and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-term potentiation</span> Persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity

In neuroscience, long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity. These are patterns of synaptic activity that produce a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between two neurons. The opposite of LTP is long-term depression, which produces a long-lasting decrease in synaptic strength.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMPA receptor</span> Transmembrane protein family

The α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (also known as AMPA receptor, AMPAR, or quisqualate receptor) is an ionotropic transmembrane receptor for glutamate (iGluR) and predominantly Na+ ion channel that mediates fast synaptic transmission in the central nervous system (CNS). It has been traditionally classified as a non-NMDA-type receptor, along with the kainate receptor. Its name is derived from its ability to be activated by the artificial glutamate analog AMPA. The receptor was first named the "quisqualate receptor" by Watkins and colleagues after a naturally occurring agonist quisqualate and was only later given the label "AMPA receptor" after the selective agonist developed by Tage Honore and colleagues at the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy in Copenhagen. The GRIA2-encoded AMPA receptor ligand binding core (GluA2 LBD) was the first glutamate receptor ion channel domain to be crystallized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synaptic plasticity</span> Ability of a synapse to strengthen or weaken over time according to its activity

In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increases or decreases in their activity. Since memories are postulated to be represented by vastly interconnected neural circuits in the brain, synaptic plasticity is one of the important neurochemical foundations of learning and memory.

In neurophysiology, long-term depression (LTD) is an activity-dependent reduction in the efficacy of neuronal synapses lasting hours or longer following a long patterned stimulus. LTD occurs in many areas of the CNS with varying mechanisms depending upon brain region and developmental progress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kainate receptor</span> Class of ionotropic glutamate receptors

Kainate receptors, or kainic acid receptors (KARs), are ionotropic receptors that respond to the neurotransmitter glutamate. They were first identified as a distinct receptor type through their selective activation by the agonist kainate, a drug first isolated from the algae Digenea simplex. They have been traditionally classified as a non-NMDA-type receptor, along with the AMPA receptor. KARs are less understood than AMPA and NMDA receptors, the other ionotropic glutamate receptors. Postsynaptic kainate receptors are involved in excitatory neurotransmission. Presynaptic kainate receptors have been implicated in inhibitory neurotransmission by modulating release of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA through a presynaptic mechanism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PDZ domain</span>

The PDZ domain is a common structural domain of 80-90 amino-acids found in the signaling proteins of bacteria, yeast, plants, viruses and animals. Proteins containing PDZ domains play a key role in anchoring receptor proteins in the membrane to cytoskeletal components. Proteins with these domains help hold together and organize signaling complexes at cellular membranes. These domains play a key role in the formation and function of signal transduction complexes. PDZ domains also play a highly significant role in the anchoring of cell surface receptors to the actin cytoskeleton via mediators like NHERF and ezrin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRIA1</span> Mammalian protein found in Homo sapiens

Glutamate receptor 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GRIA1 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas C. Südhof</span> German-American biochemist

Thomas Christian Südhof, ForMemRS, is a German-American biochemist known for his study of synaptic transmission. Currently, he is a professor in the school of medicine in the department of molecular and cellular physiology, and by courtesy in neurology, and in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.

Graham Leon Collingridge is a British neuroscientist and professor at the University of Toronto and at the University of Bristol. He is also a senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

David S. Bredt is an American molecular neuroscientist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary B. Kennedy</span> American biochemist and neuroscientist

Mary Bernadette Kennedy is an American biochemist and neuroscientist. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is the Allen and Lenabelle Davis Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1981. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, the process underlying formation of memory in the central nervous system. Her lab uses biochemical and molecular biological methods to study the protein machinery within a structure called the postsynaptic density. Kennedy has published over 100 papers with over 20,000 total citations.

Ted M. Dawson is an American neurologist and neuroscientist. He is the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Director of the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has joint appointments in the Department of Neurology, Neuroscience and Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences.

Valina L. Dawson is an American neuroscientist who is the director of the Programs in Neuroregeneration and Stem Cells at the Institute for Cell Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has joint appointments in the Department of Neurology, Neuroscience and Physiology. She is a member of the Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology.

R. Suzanne Zukin is an American neuroscientist and a professor of neuroscience who directs a research lab as a F. M. Kirby Chair in Neural Repair and Protection and director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Zukin's areas of research include neurodegenerative disorders, Ischemia, Epigenetics and Autism and uses molecular biology approaches to research these disorders. Zukin has made seminal contributions to the understanding of NMDA and AMPA receptor function and activity.

HollisT. Cline is an American neuroscientist and the Director of the Dorris Neuroscience Center at the Scripps Research Institute in California. Her research focuses on the impact of sensory experience on brain development and plasticity.

Camilla Bellone is an Italian neuroscientist and assistant professor in the Department of Basic Neuroscience at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland. Bellone's laboratory explores the molecular mechanisms and neural circuits underlying social behavior and probes how defects at the molecular and circuit level give rise to psychiatric disease states such as Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Marina Elizabeth Wolf is an American neuroscientist and Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University. Previously she served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience in the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. She has been a pioneer in studying the role of neuronal plasticity in drug addiction. Her laboratory is particularly interested in understanding why individuals recovering from substance use disorder remain vulnerable to drug craving and relapse even after long periods of abstinence.

Hey-Kyoung Lee is a neuroscience professor at Johns Hopkins University. She studies cross-modal plasticity between visual and auditory systems.

Elizabeth Quinlan is an American neuroscientist and a professor at the University of Maryland. There she serves as the Clark Leadership Chair in Neuroscience and as the Director of the Brain and Behavior Institute (BBI). Her research focuses on understanding how the plasticity of juvenile and adult mammalian visual systems differ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan Sheng</span>

Morgan Hwa-Tze Sheng is a professor of neurobiology and a Core Institute Member at the Broad Institute, where he is a co-director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute. He is a professor of neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences as well as the Menicon Professor of Neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an associate member at both The Picower Institute for Learning and McGovern Institute for Brain Research. He has served on the editorial boards of Current Opinions in Neurobiology, Neuron, and The Journal of Neuroscience.

References

  1. ↑ "Richard Huganir's CV" . Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  2. ↑ "The Solomon H Snyder Department of Neuroscience". neuroscience.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  3. ↑ "Home". Psychological & Brain Sciences. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  4. ↑ "Faculty profile". Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine . Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Brain Science Institute". www.brainscienceinstitute.org. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  6. ↑ "Home". biolchem.bs.jhmi.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  7. ↑ "Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences". www.hopkinsmedicine.org. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  8. ↑ "Richard L. Huganir, Ph.D." Cure Alzheimer's Fund. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Vassar College". Vassar College. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  10. ↑ "Cornell University". www.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  11. ↑ "Richard Huganir Appointed President of Society for Neuroscience". Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. July 5, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Huganir Lab". neuroscience.bs.jhmi.edu. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  13. ↑ "Publication List on PubMed". PubMed . Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Young Investigator Award". Society for Neuroscience. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 8, 2018. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  16. ↑ "Three from Johns Hopkins Elected Fellows of AAAS". The Johns Hopkins University Gazette. November 1, 2004.
  17. ↑ "Annual Julius Axelrod Symposium". NIMH. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  18. ↑ "Johns Hopkins Scientists Elected Into Institute of Medicine". Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. October 17, 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  19. ↑ Richard L. Huganir, Ph.D. - 2014 Goldman-Rakic Prizewinner in Cognitive Neuroscience, 27 October 2014, archived from the original on 2021-12-15, retrieved 2021-05-03
  20. ↑ Saralyn Cruickshank (May 21, 2018). "Renowned neuroscientist Richard Huganir named Bloomberg Distinguished Professor". Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  21. ↑ "2019 Scolnick Prize Awarded to Richard Huganir". MIT McGovern Institute. 2019-02-08. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  22. ↑ "Society for Neuroscience 2022 Outstanding Career and Research Achievements". Society for Neuroscience. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
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