Time: 10:30am-12:00pm, Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Venue: E10-211, Yungu Campus

Online: Tencent Meeting 443-364-046

Host:  Mohamad Sawan, Chair Professor of School of Engineering

Speaker：

Dr. Changliang Liu

Assistant Professor

School of Life Science

Westlake University

Biography:

Dr. Changliang Liu received his B.S. from China Pharmaceutical University, Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and postdoctoral  training in Pascal Kaeser's lab at Harvard Medical School. His work has  identified new mechanisms of dopamine release and redefined the spatiotemporal principles of dopamine signaling. He is now an assistant professor at Westlake University, focusing on the biophysics of neurotransmission, striatal computation, motor control, and next-generation drug discovery.

Abstract:

Despite the well-recognized importance of dopamine in a range of brain functions, the biophysical nature of dopamine signaling remains elusive. Here, I will discuss how dopamine release is organized and regulated in axons and how these features shape our current theory of neuromodulation. I will first show that the dopamine system is endowed with a micro-scale architecture for transmission, where dopamine release only happens at sparsely distributed hot spots in axons with extremely high speed and efficiency. I will then demonstrate that action potentials can be initiated in distal dopamine axons, which bypasses Cajal's law of dynamic polarization (dendrites-soma-axon information flow), serves as a physiological regulation for striatal functions, and contributes to behavior. These findings will build the foundation for understanding dopamine signaling in the brain and ultimately power the development of new therapeutic strategies for related disorders.

Contact:

Yitian(Claire) Zhang

zhangyitian@westlake.edu.cn