Neuroscientist to give Wellcome Lecture on ‘Novel Neural Messengers’

Snyder

Dr. Solomon Snyder, professor of neuroscience, pharmacology and psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will be at the UW next week as a Wellcome visiting professor in the basic medical sciences. He is a guest of the School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology.

Snyder, internationally known for his work on the biochemistry of nervous system signal transmission, will give a public lecture at 3:30 p.m. in room T-625 of the Health Sciences Center. His topic is “Novel Neural Messengers.”

For many years, he has been interested in the molecular basis of psychiatric disorders and has made important contributions to understanding how drugs including heroin, LSD and marijuana affect the brain. He received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his work on opiate receptors, the molecular targets for heroin action on the brain. In his lecture, he will talk about his recent work on the actions of two recently identified neurotransmitters: nitric oxide and D-serine.

Nitric oxide is an unusual molecule to be a neurotransmitter. It is a simple, but highly reactive gas which has powerful effects on both the regulation of brain function and blood flow. Understanding how nitric oxide works in the brain has led to many new insights, which Snyder will describe.

D-serine is also a surprising candidate to be a neurotransmitter. Still, recent studies have found that substantial levels of free D-serine occur in mammals, especially in nervous and endocrine tissues. Work in Synder’s laboratory has shown that D-serine may be an important modulator of learning and memory in the brain.

Snyder was born in Washington, D.C. and earned his bachelor’s and medical degrees at Georgetown College and Medical School. After doing work on the biological basis of schizophrenia, he received his research training at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratory of Dr. Julius Axelrod, who received the 1970 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on neurotransmitter storage, release and inactivation.

After completing a residency in psychiatry, Snyder established his own laboratory at Johns Hopkins, where he is now a professor and director of the Department of Neuroscience. He has received many honors in addition to the Lasker Award, including the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Research in 1996. He is the author of Drugs and the Brain, published by Scientific American Books in 1986, along with a dozen other books.

The Wellcome visiting professorship is supported by a grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. ¶