Shasta Sabo Joins Department of Pharmacology
Dr. Sabo will join the faculty at Case in the fall of 2007 as Assistant Professor of Pharmacology. Dr. Sabo received BAs in Biology and Integrated Sciences from Northwestern University in 1994. In 2000, she received her Ph.D. from Rockefeller University, where she worked in Dr. Paul Greengard’s laboratory investigating the roles of protein-protein interactions in cell motility and Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. She then joined Dr. Kimberley McAllister's laboratory at the University of California, Davis to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synapse formation for her postdoctoral research. Most recently, she continued her studies of the mechanisms of synapse formation as a research associate in Dr. Kang Shen’s laboratory at Stanford University.
Dr. Sabo has published numerous primary research papers in journals such as Nature Neuroscience, The Journal of Neuroscience, The Journal of Cell Biology and The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Her recent work on synapse formation has lead to novel models of the cellular mechanisms of synaptogenesis in the cortex, demonstrating that synapses are formed specifically at predefined sites along axons and that, in contrast to what had been thought for decades, individual growth cone filopodia can emit signals and potentially prime their targets.
Research Interests
Formation of synapses between CNS neurons is a complex process that establishes the circuits that govern perception and behavior. Despite the importance of proper synapse formation for brain development and function, fundamental questions about the mechanisms of CNS synaptogenesis remain unanswered. For example, how are the protein complexes and specialized membrane domains critical for synaptic transmission assembled at the right place at the right time? Which proteins are essential for synapse development? How are pre- and post-synaptic assembly coordinated? Are the mechanisms of excitatory and inhibitory synapse formation similar? How is the balance of excitatory and inhibitory inputs onto a neuron controlled? Dr. Sabo’s research aims to address such questions.
To study synaptogenesis, Dr. Sabo uses live fluorescence imaging of postnatal rodent cortical neurons complemented with biochemical and molecular genetic approaches. Time-lapse imaging is powerful since it allows simultaneous study of spatial and temporal aspects of synapse formation and permits the observation and manipulation of individual synapses and networks in real-time, as they form. Approaches used to identify novel molecules important for synaptogenesis include testing mammalian orthologs of proteins identified in genetic model organisms and conducting genetic screens using RNAi. The roles of individual candidate proteins are studied using genetic and pharmacological manipulations.
These studies will have broad medical relevance since errors in synapse formation can have devastating functional implications: abnormal cortical synaptic connectivity has been linked to diseases as diverse as autism, mental retardation, amblyopia, epilepsy and schizophrenia. Understanding the normal choreography of synaptogenesis will be essential for understanding the etiology of such diseases.