Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Health and Disease

Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Ohio State University. Involved in undergraduate and graduate education for most of his career, he served on the Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program Graduate Studies Committee for many years and is currently on the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Programs Graduate Studies Committee (BSGP). He was involved in the development of the Neuroscience major at Ohio State and has taught a large undergraduate Neuroscience class for more than 10 years. Research activities in the Boyd laboratory emphasize a molecular biological analysis of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and were the first to clone the zebrafish neuronal nAChR genes and determine its expression pattern during development. The information derived from these studies is being used to develop zebrafish as a model for studying the role of nAChRs in normal development of the nervous system and the mechanisms by which nicotine perturbs this.

Introduction: Overview of nAChRs, will focus on neuronal receptors
1. nAChR Structure
2. Receptor Localization, Subtype Diversity, and Evolution
3. Ion Channel Function, and Biophysics