DBC Seminar Series: Dr. Tom Kornberg

Dr. Tom Kornberg

Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Cardiovascular Research Institute
University California, San Francisco

“Signaling at a distance: communicating by contacts in development and cancer”

Abstract:

Development creates a vast array of forms and patterns with elegant economy, using a small vocabulary of pattern-generating signaling proteins (BMPs, FGFs, EGFs, Wnts, and Hhs) in similar ways in many different contexts. Our work shows that specialized filopodia called cytonemes transport signaling proteins between cells, mediating cell-cell exchanges at contacts that are functionally similar to neuronal synapses. We explore the fascinating implications of these roles and physical attributes for the way signaling proteins disperse across tissues in both normal and disease contexts.

For more info about Dr. Kornberg's research:

https://www.cvri.ucsf.edu/~kornberg/