Colloquium 2007-10-25

 

3:30 p.m. in Room 307 of the Optical Sciences Meinel Building

Speaker:

Leslie Tolbert

University of Arizona

Title:

Microscopic Studies of Intercellular Interactions Critical for the Development of Brain Circuitry

Host:

James Wyant

Abstract:

My research group is interested in mechanisms underlying the development of complex neural circuitry.  We focus on development of the olfactory system and use convenient model organisms, a moth and the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, for our studies.  Experiments are aimed at understanding the cellular and molecular basis of key cellular interactions that influence the guidance of olfactory receptor axons to their targets in the brain and their subsequent influence on the development of those target neurons.  Using laser scanning confocal microscopy, video microscopy, and electron microscopy, as well as biochemical, molecular biological, and electrophysiological techniques, we have discovered that the influence of sensory input on the development of brain circuitry is mediated by glial cells, cells previously thought to play only more passive roles.  We currently are exploring the molecular underpinnings of reciprocal interactions between developing neurons and glial cells.  Our results to date make predictions about roles for glial cells in development in more complicated mammalian nervous systems.

Bio:

Leslie Tolbert, a faculty member at the University of Arizona since 1987, is a Regents’ Professor in the Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neurobiology, with a joint appointment in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy. She became Vice President for Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development in July 2005. 

 

Leslie received her A.B. in applied mathematics from Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and her Ph.D. in neuroanatomy from the Division of Medical Sciences of Harvard University in 1978.  She held a postdoctoral fellowship with John Hildebrand (now at the UA!) at Harvard Medical School and then was a research associate with Ron Calabrese at Harvard’s Biological Laboratories.  She then was a faculty member at Georgetown University School of Medicine for five years before moving to the University of Arizona in 1987.

 

She leads a research group that studies mechanisms underlying the important role of sensory input in guiding the development of sensory areas of the brain, carrying out their research in experimentally advantageous insect model systems.  She has taught undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, and is a member of several graduate programs, including the campus-wide GIDP in Neuroscience, which she chaired for seven years, and the GIDP in Applied Math, for which she served on the steering committee for many years. 

 

Outside of the university, Leslie recently served as president of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences and is currently a councilor of the Society for Neuroscience.  She sits on the editorial board of Chemical Senses and was an associate editor of The Journal of Comparative Neurology from 2001 to 2005.