Lorna Role earned a B.A. degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 1975 and continued on to earn a Ph.D. in Physiology in 1981. After three years of postdoctoral study at Harvard Medical School, she was appointed an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1992, and in 1996 was promoted to Professor in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. From 1996 to 2008, she also held the position of Research Scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. In 2008, she joined the State University of New York at Stony Brook as Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. In 2001 she was elected a member of The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). In 2006 she was awarded the Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Prize for Innovative Research related to Schizophrenia (NARSAD) and in 2007- 2008 received a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award: Baer Investigator. She currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Neuroscience and Frontiers in Neuroscience and is an Associate Editor of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Research
Central cholinergic systems, which provide important modulatory control of synaptic excitability, have been strongly implicated in neuropsychiatric diseases including attentional disorders, schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer’s dementia. The Role laboratory studies the generation, plasticity, and maintenance of cholinergic and cholinoceptive synapses in the mammalian brain. Recent work tests the hypothesis that novel classes of signaling molecules, which are products of the neuregulin-1 gene, are important in the susceptibility to such diseases. Neuregulin-1-signaling is essential to the maintenance of normal cholinergic circuits. The role of neuregulin-1 signaling in synaptic function is being studied with in vivo and in vitro electrophysiological approaches as well as in behavioral tests of mice genetically altered to express reduced levels of functional neuregulin-1 protein. The Role lab, in collaboration with the laboratories of Dr David Talmage has demonstrated that neuregulin-1-signaling is bi-directional, and that neuregulin-1-expressing neurons require such signaling to survive. Current work also employs molecular and biochemical approaches to further examine the signaling cascades and target genes activated by interactions of neuregulin-1 with its receptor (erbB), in both pre- and postsynaptic neurons. As the neuregulin-1 gene has been strongly implicated as a susceptibility locus for schizophrenia, current work could provide important insight into the role of Nrg1 at synapses and circuits whose function and dysfunction may underlie this and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
Selected Publications
- PubMed Link
- Zhong, C., Du, C., Hancock, M., Mertz, M., Talmage, D.A., and Role, L.W. (2008) Presynaptic Type III Neuregulin 1 is required for sustained enhancement of hippocampal transmission by nicotine and for axonal targeting of a7 nAChRs. J. Neurosci. 28: 9111-9116.
- Chen, Y-J., Johnson, M.A., Lieberman, M.D., Goodchild, R., Schobel, S., Lewandowski, N., Rosoklija, G., Liu, R-C., Gingrich, J.A., Small, S., Moore, H., Dwork, A.J., Talmage, D.A., and Role, L.W. (2008) Type III Nrg1 is required for normal sensorimotor gating, memory related behaviors and cortico-striatal circuit components. J. Neurosci. 28: 6872-6883.
- Hancock, M.L., Canetta, S., Role, L.W. and Talmage, D.A.
(2008). Presynaptic Type III Neuregulin1 - ErbB signaling targets a7
nicotinic acetylcholine receptors to axons. J. Cell Biol. 181:511-521.
- Role, L.W. and Talmage, D.A. (2007) A New Order for Thought
Disorders Nature 448:263-265
- Berman JA, Talmage DA, Role LW (2007) Cholinergic circuits
and signaling in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia International
Review of Neurobiology 78: 193-223
- Lopez Bendito, G., Cautinat, A., Sanchez, J.A., Bielle, Flames,
N., Garratt, A. N., Talmage, DA, Role, L.W.., Charnay, P. Marin, O. & Garel,
S. (2006) Tangential Migration Controls Axon Guidance: A Role
for Neuregulin 1 in thalamocortical axon navigation Cell
125: 127-142
- Jo YH, Chua S., Talmage D.A. and Role LW (2005) Integration
of Endocannabinoid and Leptin Signaling in an Appetite related Neural
Circuit. Neuron 48: 1055-1066.
- Taveggia, C., Zanazzi, G., Petrylak, A., Yano, H, Rosenbluth.,
J.., Einheber., Esper, RM., Loeb J., Shrager, P., Chao MV., Falls.,
D., Role, L. and JL Salzer (2005) Neuregulin-1 Type III Determines
the Ensheathment Fate of Axons. Neuron 47(5):681-694.
- Michailov, G.V., M.W. Sereda, T. Fischer, B. G. Brinkmann B.
Haug, C. Birchmeier, L.W. Role, C. Lai , M. H. Schwab, and
K-A Nave (2004) Axonal Neuregulin-1 regulates myelin sheath thickness. Science 304:
700-703; Featured on Cover and, perspective and highlights of this
paper appeared in numerous journals.
- Bao, J., Wolpowitz, D., Role, LW., and Talmage, D.A. (2003). Back-Signaling
by the Neuregulin-1 intracellular Domain J. Cell Biology 161:1133-1141 (Commentaries and highlights on this article appeared in J. Cell
Biology (72): 161:1007 and in Nature Neuroscience Reviews 4:609,
2003).
Honors, Awards, and Leadership Positions
- 2009 Grass Lecturer for the Vermont Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience
- named a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator (2nd time)
- received the Baer Prize for Innovative research related to Schizophrenia
- was a Plenary Speaker at the Cholinergic Circuits Symposium in Brazil (2008)
- was named the Bauer Visiting Professor at Brandeis University in Spring 2009
- has been invited to speak at a Signalling Symposium in Korea (2009)
Laboratory Personnel
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