Oregon Health & Science University

Oregon Hearing Research Center

OHRC faculty

About the OHRC



OHRC Faculty Member
Larry Trussell

Larry Trussell (trussell@ohsu.edu) received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1983. After initial postdoctoral work at UCLA, he took further postdoctoral training at Washington University, St. Louis. In 1990 he received a faculty appointment at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1999 he was appointed professor in the Oregon Hearing Research Center with a joint appointment at the Vollum Institute.

Research Interests

Using chemical and electrical signals, neurons preserve, process and integrate information about sensory stimuli in our environment. Each sensory modality presents the brain with special challenges. These challenges are met by unique neuronal circuitry and by unique cellular characteristics in the neurons themselves. We are interested in the fine-tuning of membrane properties and synapses requisite to the incredible feats of computation performed in the auditory system, where even microsecond differences in signals have behavioral consequences.

We work on neurons in the cochlear nuclei because their large somatic synapses offer the opportunity to study synaptic transmission at high resolution, and because we can relate findings about cellular mechanisms to activity measured in vivo. Patch-clamp analyses reveal that these neurons express a complement of glutamate receptors and potassium channels that enable the cells to fire reliably in response to incoming stimuli, thus passaging signals with little temporal jitter. We are finding that mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and clearance are also fine-tuned to the tasks of preserving timing information. We employ electrophysiological and optical approaches to reveal how single synapses participate in this process. Other studies in the lab are directed toward understanding the regulation of expression of these receptors and channels on a pathway-specific basis.

Key Publications

Gardner, S.M., Trussell, L.O., and Oertel, D. (1999) Time course and permeation of synaptic AMPA receptors in cochlear nuclear neurons correlate with input. J. Neurosci. 19:8721-8729.

Brenowitz, S.D., David, J., and Trussell, L.O. (1998) Enhancement of synaptic strength by presynaptic GABAB receptors. Neuron 20:135-141.

Otis, T.S., Wu, Y.-C., and Trussell, L.O. (1996) Delayed clearance of transmitter and the role of glutamate transporters at synapses with multiple release sites. J. Neurosci. 16:1634-1644.

Otis, T.S., Zhang, S., and Trussell., L.O. (1996) Direct measurement of AMPA receptor desensitization induced by glutamatergic synaptic transmission. J. Neurosci. 16:7496-7504.

Raman, I.M., Zhang, S. and Trussell, L.O. (1994) Pathway-specific expression of AMPA receptors and their contribution to neuronal signalling. J. Neurosci. 14:4998-5010.


OHRC Web manager Electra Allenton / last modified Aug. 4, 2006