Project Summary

Kanehiro Hayashi, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2006) of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, aims to study stathmin’s role in cytoskeletal formation in nerve cells and in schizophrenia. Synaps formation and loss is an important aspect of central nervous system development, adult brain function, aging, and neuropsychiatric disease. Cdk5, a neuronal protein kinase, has been implicated in each of these processes. Recently, Dr. Hayashi has found that stathmin, a tubulin-binding protein, is a substrate of Cdk5 and that phosphorylated and total stathmnin levels drop in rodent dopaminoceptive neurons during postnatal development, when the structural plasticity of synapses is greatest. He also found abnormally high levels of stathmin and phospho-stathmin in the brains of patients with schizophrenia. Dr. Hayashi hypothesizes that stathmin helps regulate cytoskeleton formation necessary for synaptic plasticity and that disruption of stathmin’s regulatory mechanisms contributes to schizophrenia. He plans to do a variety of experiments to test his theory. Results could identify novel targets for the development of preventive treatments.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia

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