Signal Transduction

Ijsbrand Kramer is a professor at the University of Bordeaux, working in the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology (IECB). He holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in BioMedicine from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, with a one year research-excursion in the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Liverpool, UK. He did his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam, in the Central Laboratory of Blood transfusion services (Stichting Sanquin) and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Hubrecht Laboratory in Utrecht and at the University of Washington in Seattle. He then took a lecturer position at the Department of Pharmacology at University College London, where he taught Signal Transduction (with Bastien Gomperts and Pether Tatham) and Pharmacology. Both teaching activities have been documented in textbooks: Signal Transduction (3 editions) and Receptor Pharmacology (CRC Press/Taylor Francis Group, 3 editions). Most of his research centers on the theme of inflammation, starting with neutrophils and the NADPH oxidase, synovial fibroblasts and destruction of the joint and more recently podosomes formation and extracellular matrix destruction in vascular endothelium. He moved to the University of Bordeaux for family reasons and switched from Pharmacology to Cell Biology, with a strong contribution to an introductory course for 1st year university students. Given the important teaching load and the general low level of student engagement in higher education he started to investigate the reasons for student failure (finding out about their expectations and attitudes) and the role of images and animations in comprehension. Scientific publications, web-based multimedia resources and dramatically enhanced retention rates (from 33 to 85%) are the fruits of these activities. At the same time he organized with University College London and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, summer schools on Receptor and Signalling Mechanism. He has been co-director of two European Programmes (Interbio and Transbio) that aimed at enhancing industrial innovation in the biomedical sector in the South West European Region (SUDOE). For book/publicity purposes, image of the author by Maarten Kramer

Chapter 1 Prologue: Signal Transduction, origins and ancestors
Chapter 2 First messengers
Chapter 3 Receptors
Chapter 4 GTP-binding proteins and signal transduction
Chapter 5 Effector enzymes coupled to GTP binding proteins: adenylyl cyclase and phospholipase C
Chapter 6 The regulation of visual transduction and olfaction
Chapter 7 Intracellular calcium
Chapter 8 Calcium effectors
Chapter 9 Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation: protein kinases A and C
Chapter 10 Nuclear receptors
Chapter 11 Growth Factors: setting the framework
Chapter 12 Signalling pathways operated by receptor protein tyrosine kinases
Chapter 13 Signal transduction to and from adhesion molecules
Chapter 14 Adhesion molecules in the regulation of cell differentiation: Mainly about Wnt
Chapter 15 Activation of the innate immune system: the Toll-like receptor 4 and Signalling through Ubiquitylation
Chapter 16 Traffic of white blood cells
Chapter 17 Tyrosine protein kinases and adaptive immunity : TCR, BCR, soluble tyrosine kinases and NFAT
Chapter 18 Phosphoinositide 3 kinases, protein kinase B and signalling through the insulin receptor
Chapter 19 Protein Kinase C revisited
Chapter 20 Signalling through receptor serine/threonine kinases
Chapter 21 Protein dephosphorylation and protein phosphorylation
Chapter 22 Notch
Chapter 23 Targeting transduction pathways for research and medical intervention
Chapter 24 Protein domains and signal transduction