CDB Seminar - Marc Freeman, Vollum Institute

Host: Vilaiwan Fernandes

Talk abstract: Axon degeneration is a prominent feature of the injured nervous system, occurs across neurological diseases, and drives functional loss in neural circuits.  In 2012, we discovered that injured axons are capable of actively driving their own destruction through the sterile-alpha and TIR motif containing 1 (SARM1) protein.  Early studies of Wallerian degeneration highlighted a central role for NAD+ metabolites in axon survival, and this association has grown even stronger in recent years with a deeper understanding of SARM1 biology.  This seminar will discuss our current knowledge of SARM1 function in vivo, and our evolving understanding of its complex architecture and potential regulation by injury-dependent changes in the local metabolic environment.  The field is converging on a model whereby SARM1 acts as a sensor for metabolic changes that occur after injury, and then drives catastrophic NAD+ loss to promote degeneration.  However, a number of observations suggest that SARM1 biology is much more complicated, and there remains much to learn about how SARM1 governs nervous system responses to injury or disease.

Injury-induced inhibition of bystander neurons requires dSarm and signaling from glia Hsu JM, Kang Y, Corty MM, Mathieson D, Peters OM, Freeman MR Neuron 2021 Feb 3;109(3):473-487.e5 PMID: 33296670

Axon death pathways converge on Axundead to promote functional and structural axon disassembly Neukomm LJ, Burdett TC, Seeds AM, Hampel S, Coutinho-Budd JC, Farley JE, Wong J, Karadeniz YB, Osterloh JM, Sheehan AE and Freeman MR Neuron 2017 Jul 5;95(1):78-91.e5 PMID:28683272

Join Zoom Meeting https://ucl.zoom.us/j/92643188496?pwd=QVJvYlY2WmpRZ1ltWFF4K2xBMzVlQT09

Meeting ID: 926 4318 8496

Passcode: 575107