This month’s featured researcher is Margaret Stratton.  Meg is an assistant professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UMass. Her research focuses on  understanding the molecular components of memory. In particular, she works on a protein called calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase II or CaMKII. molecule is actually a complex of twelve subunits that provide it with unique properties that allow it to alter neuronal activity. In recent paper published in the journal Neuron, Meg and her collaborators demonstrated a novel mechanism that allows CamKII to have persistent effects.

Here’s what’ new for ‘ ”University of Massachusetts” AND Amherst AND neuroscience’ in PubMed. These publications appeared on line in May. They are just a fraction of the research that occurs on campus.

1. Saneyoshi T, Matsuno H, Suzuki A, Murakoshi H, Hedrick NG, Agnello E, O’Connell R, Stratton MM, Yasuda R, Hayashi Y. Reciprocal Activation within a Kinase-Effector Complex Underlying Persistence of Structural LTP. Neuron. 2019 May 8. pii: S0896-6273(19)30347-2. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.04.012. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31078368
2. Wakeford AGP, Morin EL, Bramlett SN, Howell BR, McCormack KM, Meyer JS, Nader
   MA, Sanchez MM, Howell LL. Effects of early life stress on cocaine
   self-administration in post-pubertal male and female rhesus macaques.
   Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2019 May 21. doi: 10.1007/s00213-019-05254-8. [Epub
   ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31115612.
3. Venturelli M, Villa F, Ruzzante F, Tarperi C, Rudi D, Milanese C, Cavedon V,
   Fonte C, Picelli A, Smania N, Calabria E, Skafidas S, Layec G, Schena F.
   Neuromuscular and Muscle Metabolic Functions in MELAS Before and After Resistance
   Training: A Case Study. Front Physiol. 2019 Apr 26;10:503. doi:
   10.3389/fphys.2019.00503. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31105594; PubMed Central
   PMCID: PMC6498991.