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| Mark L. Mayer, Ph.D., Senior Investigator |
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Dr. Mayer received a B.Sc. from Bristol University in 1977 and a Ph.D. from the University of London in 1980 for studies on synaptic mechanisms in the hypothalamus and brain stem. While a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas, the NIH, and the University of London, he did pioneering work on the biophysics of ion channels in CNS neurons. Dr. Mayer was recruited to the NICHD as an Investigator in 1987. He received the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator award in 1989 for his work on glutamate receptors. During a sabbatical at Columbia University in 1999 he solved the structure of the ligand binding core of a bacterial glutamate receptor ion channel and studied X-ray crystallography and biochemistry. His laboratory works on the structure and function of ligand gated ion channels using electrophysiological, biochemical and structural approaches.
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Staff:
- Dr. Charu Chaudhry, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow chaudhrc@mail.nih.gov
- Carla R Glasser, B.S., Research Assistant carlag@codon.nih.gov
- Dr. Janesh Kumar, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow janeshdubey@gmail.com
- Dr. Andrew Plested, Ph.D., IRTA Fellow plesteda@mail.nih.gov
- Dr. Yongneng Yao, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow yaoyongn@mail.nih.gov
Research Interests:
My lab studies the ligand gated ion channels which mediate excitatory synaptic transmission in the CNS. Our major experimental approach is x-ray crystallography and biochemical characterization of purified receptors, but we also use electrophysiological approaches to study the same proteins in their native membrane environment.
The recent success of x-ray diffraction analysis of voltage gated ion channel proteins pioneered by Rod MacKinnon is starting to provide the necessary structural framework for interpretation of functional studies on many classes of ion channels and represents a major advance in both technique and conceptual approaches. By using both crystallography and physiology we can for the 1st time infer molecular mechanisms from structures, and then test the resulting hypotheses about channel function via site directed mutagenesis and studies on channels expressed in native membranes. For a detailed description of our research program, a tour of the lab, and information for prospective students and postdoctoral fellows paste the following link into a web browser
http://mayerlab.nichd.nih.gov
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Selected Recent Publications:
Plested, A. and Mayer M.L. (2007) Structure and mechanism of kainate receptor modulation by anions, Neuron 15, 539-552.
Weston, M.C., Gertler, C., Mayer, M.L. and Rosenmund, C (2006) Interdomain interactions in AMPA and kainate receptors regulate affinity for glutamate, Journal of Neuroscience 26, 7650-7658.
Weston, M.C., Schuck, P., Ghosal, A., Rosenmund, C. and Mayer, M.L. (2006) Conformational restriction blocks glutamate receptor desensitization, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 13, 1120-1127.
Yao, Y and Mayer, M.L. (2006) Characterization of a soluble ligand binding domain of the NMDA receptor regulatory subunit NR3A, Journal of Neuroscience 26, 4559-4566.
Mayer, M.L. (2005) Crystal Structures of the GluR5 and GluR6 Ligand Binding Cores: Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Kainate Receptor Selectivity, Neuron 45, 539-552.
Horning, M.S. and Mayer, M.L. (2004) Regulation of AMPA receptor gating by ligand binding core dimers, Neuron 41, 379-388.
Sun,Y., Olson, R., Horning, M., Mayer, M. and Gouaux, E. (2002) Mechanism of glutamate receptor desensitization, Nature 417, 245-253.
Full Text/Abstract
All Selected Publications
Contact Information:
Dr. Mark L. Mayer
Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Neurophysiology, NICHD
Porter Neuroscience Research Center
Building 35, Room 3B-1002
35 Convent Drive, MSC 3712
Bethesda, MD 20892-3712
Telephone: (301) 496-9346 (office),
(301) 496-9347 (laboratory),
(301) 402-2396 (fax)
Email: mayerm@mail.nih.gov
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