Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

A Spatial Stochastic Model Of Ampar Trafficking And Subunit Dynamics, Tyler Vandyk, Matthew C. Pharris, Tamara L. Kinzer-Ursem

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In excitatory neurons, the ability of a synaptic connection to strengthen or weaken is known as synaptic plasticity and is thought to be the cellular basis for learning and memory. Understanding the mechanism of synaptic plasticity is an important step towards understanding and developing treatment methods for learning and memory disorders. A key molecular process in synaptic plasticity for mammalian glutamatergic neurons is the exocytosis (delivery to the synapse) of AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs). While the protein signaling pathways responsible for exocytosis have long been investigated with experimental methods, it remains unreasonable to study the system in its full complexity …