Molecular and Cell Biology Program

Avital Rodal

Associate Professor of Biology

Research Description

Endosomal Membrane Traffic in Neurons

Our lab is focused on understanding how neurons set up elaborate structures that are tailored to send and receive electrical signals over large distances and through complex networks of connections. Neurons undergo dynamic structural changes in response to external growth cuesduring development as well as learning and memory, and die back in the absence of positive growth cues. These growth cues are received at the cell surface and are trafficked into the cell via a network of membrane-bound compartments called endosomes. However, we still do not understand the identity of the internal compartments from which growth cues signal, the special properties of those compartments that enable signaling to occur, and ultimately how the hundreds of proteins that make up the membrane traffic machinery can themselves be regulated to tune signaling up or down. These receptor trafficking events are implicated in neuronal diseases ranging from neurodegenerative disease to mental retardation and addiction, underlining the health importance of understanding how signal transduction is modulated by intracellular membrane traffic in neurons. 

We use a combination of biochemistry, genetics, and live imaging, primarily in the fruit fly nervous system (but also in mammalian cultured cells) to unravel the molecular mechanisms by which the traffic of signaling receptors that control the architecture of synapses is regulated by interacting networks of membrane remodeling proteins. We are also exploring the connection between neurodegenerative disease phenotypes and these membrane trafficking  pathways, using genetics and live imaging to manipulate and visualize sub-cellular neuronal trafficking events in established Drosophila models of ALS and Alzheimer's Disease.