Tom Soderling

Senior Scientist, Vollum Institute

Joint Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology

Joint Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Intracellular calcium is vital to many regulatory pathways inside cells where it evokes many of its physiological responses through the receptor protein calmodulin (CaM). The Soderling lab focuses on the regulation of protein kinases which are activated by Ca2+ /CaM. They are looking at the effects of one of these kinases (CaM-kinase II) on synaptic plasticity, a cellular memory process by which repeated stimuli increase the signal strength in a neural pathway. The researchers have demonstrated in cultured brain cells that CaM-kinase II mediates phosphorylation of glutamate-receptor ion channels, thereby enhancing the current flow through these channels. Intracellular calcium may also initiate events that lead to long-term memory through new gene expression. Soderling and his coworkers are exploring the involvement of CaM-kinase IV in turning on selected genes in response to elevated concentrations of calcium. Recent studies have identified a new CaM-kinase signal transduction cascade that exerts cross-talk with the cAMP-kinase and MAP-kinase pathways.

Yano, S., Tokumitsu, H., and Soderling, T.R. (1998) Calcium promotes cell survival through CaM-kinase kinase activation of the protein kinase B pathway. Nature 396, 584 - 587.

Derkach, V., Barria, A., and Soderling, T.R. (1999) CaM-kinase II enhances channel conductance of AMPA-type glutamate receptors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 96, 3269-3274.

Soderling, T.R. (1999) The Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase cascade. Trends Biochem. Sci. 24, 232-236.

Soderling, T.R., and Derkach, V.A. (2000) Postsynaptic protein phosphorylation and LTP. Trends in Neurosci. 23, 75-80.Ph.D., University of Washington, 1970

To contact Dr. Soderling directly: soderlit@ohsu.edu