Gina G Turrigiano

Joseph Levitan Professor of Vision Science

Departments/Programs

Biology
Volen National Center for Complex Systems

Degrees

University of California, San Diego, Ph.D.
Reed College, B.A.

Expertise

Gina Turrigiano studies mechanisms of homeostatic synaptic and intrinsic plasticity, and the role of these stabilizing mechanisms in the development and function of the cortex. Her work has been instrumental in demonstrating the existence of "self-tuning" mechanisms that allow neurons and circuits to adjust their excitability to prevent states of hyper- or hypoexcitability that underlie brain disorders such as epilepsy and autism spectrum disorders.

Profile

Gina Turrigiano holds the Joseph Levitan Chair in the Dept. of Biology at Brandeis. She has received numerous awards for her research including a MacArthur foundation "genius" award, McKnight Foundation Technological Innovation and Neurobiology of Disease awards, an NIH director’s pioneer award, and the HFSP Nakasone Award. she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her scientific interests include mechanisms of synaptic and intrinsic plasticity and the experience-dependent rewiring of neocortical microcircuitry. Webpage

Courses Taught

BIOL	91g	Introduction to Research Practice
NBIO	140b	Principles of Neuroscience
NBIO	145b	Systems Neuroscience
NEUR	91g	Introduction to Research Practice

Awards and Honors

HHMI Gilliam Fellow Advisor (2020 - 2023)

NINDS R35 Research Program (MERIT) Award (2019)

Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2018)

Javitz Neuroscience Investigator Award (2015)

Joseph Levitan Chair in Vision Science, Brandeis University (2015)

Member, National Academy of Sciences (2013)

Election to American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2012)

HSFP NAKASONE AWARD (2012)

McKnight Technological Development in Neuroscience Award (2007 - 2009)

NIH Directors Pioneer Award (2007 - 2012)

Heller Distinguished Lecturer, Hebrew University (2006)

McKnight Neurobiology of Disease Award (2004 - 2008)

MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2000 - 2005)

1st Alberta Goothardt Strage and Henry Strage Award for Aspiring Young Science Faculty (1999)

National Institutes of Health Career Development Award (1996 - 2001)

Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1996 - 1997)

Whitehall Foundation Research Award (1995 - 1999)

National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow (1990 - 1992)

Phi Beta Kappa (1984)

Regent's Fellowship, UCSD (1984 - 1985)

Scholarship

Wu CH, Ramos R, Katz DB, and Turrigiano GG. "Homeostatic synaptic Scaling Establishes the Specificity of an Associative Memory." Current Biology in press. (2021). (forthcoming)

Tereshko L, Gao Y, Cary B, Turrigiano GG, and Sengupta P. "Ciliary neuropeptidergic signaling dynamically regulates excitatory synapses in postnatal neocortical pyramidal neurons.." eLife 2021;10:e65427 (2021).

Torrado Pacheco A, Bottorff J, and Turrigiano GG. "Sleep promotes downward firing rate homeostasis." Neuron, 109(3):530-544.e6 10. (2021).

Trojanowski NF, Bottorff J, and Turrigiano GG. "Activity labeling in vivo using CaMPARI2 reveals intrinsic and synaptic differences between neurons with high and low firing rate set points." Neuron 109. 4 (2021): 663-676.e5.

Tatavarty V, Torrado Pacheco A, Groves Kuhnle C, Lin H, Koundinya P, Miska NK, Hengen KB, Wagner FF, Van Hooser SD, and Turrigiano GG. "Autism-associated Shank3 is essential for homeostatic compensation in rodent V1." Neuron 106:769-777 (2020).

Wu YK, Hengen KB, Turrigiano GG, and Gjorgjieva J. "Homeostatic mechanisms regulate distinct aspects of cortical circuit dynamics.." PNAS 117 (39) 24514-24525. (2020).

Ma Z, Turrigiano GG, Wessel R, Hengen KB. "Critical Dynamics are a homeostatic set point of cortical networks in vivo." Neuron, 104(4):655-664.e4 (2019).

Torrado Pacheco A, Tilden EI, Grutzner SM, Lane BJ, Wu Y, Hengen KB, Gjorgjieva J, and Turrigiano, GG. "Rapid and Active Stabilization of Visual Cortical Firing Rates Across Light-Dark Transitions." PNAS 116(36):18068-18077 (2019).

Moeyeart G, Holt G, Madangopal R, Perez-Alverez A, Fearey BC, Trojanowski NF, Ledderose J, Zolnik TA, Das A, Patel D, Brown TA, Sachdev RNS, Eichkolt BJ, Larkum ME, Turrigiano GG, Dana H, Gee CE, Oertner TG, Hope BT, and Schreiter ER. "Improved methods for marking active neuron populations." Nature Comm 9. (2018): 4440.

Nathaniel J Miska, Leonidas MA Richter, Brian A Cary, Julijana Gjorgjieva, Gina G Turrigiano. "Sensory Deprivation Independently Regulates Neocortical Feedforward and Feedback Excitation-Inhibition Ratio." eLife doi: 10.7554/eLife.38846. (2018).

Joseph, Anne, and Turrigiano, Gina G. "All for One but Not One for All: Excitatory Synaptic Scaling and Intrinsic plasticity are co-regulated by CaMKIV.." J Neurosci 37. (2017): 6778-6785.

Nahmani, M., Lanahan, C., DeRosier, D., and Turrigiano, G.G. "High-numerical-aperture cryogenic light microsopy for increased precision of superresolution reconstructions.." Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 114(15):114. (2017): 3832-3836.

Steinmetz CC, Tatavarty V, Sugino K, Shima Y, Joseph A, Lin H, Rutlin M, Lambo M, Hempel CM, Okaty BW, Paradis S, Nelson SB, Turrigiano GG. "Upregulation of μ3A Drives Homeostatic Plasticity by Rerouting AMPAR into the Recycling Endosomal Pathway.." Cell Reports 16 (2017): 2711-22.

Turrigiano, Gina G. "The dialectic of Hebb and homeostasis.." Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B. Biol. Sci.c 372.. (2017): Pii: 20160258.

Adamantidis A, et al. "Optogenetics: 10 years after ChR2 in neurons--views from the community.." Nature Neuroscience 18. (2016): 1202-12.

Hengen K, Torrado Pacheco A, McGregor J, Van Hooser S, and Turrigiano, Gina G. "Neuronal firing rate homeostasis is inhibited by sleep and promoted by wake." Cell 165. 180 (2016).

Gainey M, Tatavarty V, Lin H, and Turrigiano, Gina G. "Activity-dependent synaptic GRIP1 accumulation drives scaling up in response to action potential blockade." PNAS 112. (2015): E3590-0.

Nahmani M, Turrigiano GG. "Adult cortical plasticity following injury: recapitulation of critical period mechanisms?." Neuroscience 283. (2014): 4-16.

Nahmani M, Turrigiano GG. "Deprivation-induced strengthening of presynaptic and postsynaptic inhibitory transmission in Layer 4 of visual cortex during the critical period." J Neurosci 34. (2014): 2671-82.

Hengen, Lambo, Van Hooser, Katz, and Turrigiano. "Firing rate homeostasis in visual cortex of freely behaving rodents.." Neuron 80. (2013): 335-42.

Lambo ME, Turrigiano, Gina G. "Synaptic and Intrinsic Homeostatic Mechanisms Cooperate to Increase L2/3 Pyramidal Neuron Excitability During a Late Phase of Critical Period Plasticity." Journal of Neuroscience 33. (2013): 8810-8819.

Lefort S, Gray AC, Turrigiano GG. "Long-term inhibitory plasticity in vlsual cortical layer 4 switches sign at the opening of the critical period.." Proc Nat Acad Sci 110(47). (2013): E4540-7.

Loebrich S, Djukic B, Tong ZJ, Cottrell JR, Turrigiano GG, and Nedivi E. "Regulation of glutamate receptor internalization by the spine cytoskeleton is mediated by its PKA-dependent association with CPG2." Proc Nat Acad Sci 110(47). (2013): E4548-56.

Taft CE and Turrigiano GG. "PSD-95 promotes the stabilization of young synaptic contacts." Philo. Trans Royal Soc. Lond. B. Biol. Sci. 369. (2013): 20130134.

Tatavarty V, Sun Q, and Turrigiano, G.G.. "How to Scale Down Postsynaptic Strength." J Neurosci 33. (2013): 13179-89.

Blackman MP, Nelson SB, Turrigiano, Gina G. "A Critical and Cell-Autonomous Role for MeCP2 in Synaptic Scaling Up." Journal of Neuroscience 32. 39 (2012): 13529-36.

Nataraj K. and Turrigiano, G. "Regional and Temporal Specificity of Intrinsic Plasticity Mechanisms in Rodent Primary Visual Cortex.." J Neurosci 31. (2012): 17932-40.

Turrigiano, Gina G. "Homeostatic Synaptic Plasticity: Global and Local Mechanisms for Stabilizing Neuronal Function.." Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 1;4(1):a005736 4. (2012).

Sun, Q and Turrigiano, Gina G. "Distinct roles for PSD-95 and PSD-93 in synaptic scaling up and down." J Neurosci 31. (2011): :6800-6808.

Turrigiano, Gina G. "Too many cooks? Intrinsic and synaptic homeostatic plasticity in neocortical circuit function.." Ann Rev Neurosci 34. (2011): 89-103.

Ehlers M, Turrigiano, Gina G. "Signaling Mechanisms." Curr. Opin. Neurobiol,19:253-256 (2010).

Maffei A., Lambo M., and Turrigiano, Gina G. "Critical period for inhibitory plasticity in binocular visual cortex." J Neurosci 30:3304-3309 (2010).

Nataraj, K., Le Roux, N., Nahmani, M., Lefort S, and Turrigiano, G.G. "Visual deprivation during a critical period selectively suppresses L5 pyramidal neuron excitability by modulating the induction of intrinsic plasticity." Neuron 68. (2010): 750-762.

Steinmetz, C, and Turrigiano, Gina G. "Tumor necrosis factor-alpha signaling maintains the ability of cortical synapses to express synaptic scaling.." J Neurosci 30. (2010): 14685-90.

Bracken, B. and Turrigiano, G. "Experience-dependent regulation of TrkB isoforms in rodent visual cortex." Dev. Neurobiol 69. (2009): 267-278.

Gainey M., Hurvitz-Wolff J., Lambo, M., and Turrigiano G.G.. "Synaptic scaling in neocortical neurons requires the GluR2 subunit of the AMPA receptor." J Neurosci 29:6479-6489 (2009).

Ibata, K., Sun, Q., and Turrigiano, Gina G. "Rapid synaptic scaling induced by changes in postsynaptic firing." Neuron 57. (2008): 819-826.

Maffei, A, and Turrigiano, Gina G. "Multiple modes of network homeostasis in visual cortical layer 2/3." J Neurosci 28. (2008): 4377-4384.

Pratt, K. G., Taft, C. E., Burbea, M., Turrigiano, G. G.. "Dynamics underlying synaptic gain between pairs of cortical pyramidal neurons." Dev Neurobiol 68. 2 (2008): 143-51.

Turrigiano, Gina G. "The self-tuning neuron: synaptic scaling of excitatory synapses." Cell 135. (2008): 422-435.

Giorgi, Yeo, Stone, Katz, Turrigiano, and Moore. "The EJC factor eIF4AIII modulates synaptic strength and neuronal protein expression." Cell 130. (2007): 179-191.

Sjostrom, P. J., Turrigiano, G. G., Nelson, S. B.. "Multiple forms of long-term plasticity at unitary neocortical layer 5 synapses." Neuropharmacology 52. 1 (2007): 176-84.

Turrigiano, Gina G. "Homeostatic signaling: the positive side of negative feedback." Current Opinion in Neurobiology 17. (2007): 318-324.

Maffei, A., Nataraj, K., Nelson, S. B., Turrigiano, G. G.. "Potentiation of cortical inhibition by visual deprivation." Nature 443. 7107 (2006): 81-4.

Turrigiano, G. G.. "More than a sidekick: glia and homeostatic synaptic plasticity." Trends Mol Med 12. 10 (2006): 458-60.

Turrigiano, G.. "Maintaining your youthful spontaneity: microcircuit homeostasis in the embryonic spinal cord." Neuron 49. 4 (2006): 481-3.

Wierenga, C. J., Walsh, M. F., Turrigiano, G. G.. "Temporal regulation of the expression locus of homeostatic plasticity." J Neurophysiol 96. 4 (2006): 2127-33.