#9 – Ege Kavalali: How neurons communicate

Ege Kavalali is a Professor of Pharmacology and Acting Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University, and is also the William Stokes Chair in Experimental Therapeutics. His research focuses on understanding the fundamentals of how synaptic communication occurs between neurons under healthy circumstances and understanding how abnormalities in this process leads to psychiatric, neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders. TIMESTAMPS (00:39) – Most beautiful aspect of the brain (01:50) – Reductionism (03:25) – History of understanding how neurons communicate (05:40) – Principles of neurotransmission (09:16) – Forms of neurotransmitter release (16:27) – Function of spontaneous release (25:59) – How is spontaneous release regulated (36:05) – Discovering mechanisms of spontaneous release (39:47) – Studying neurotransmission experimentally (44:44) – Biggest experimental challenges (48:06) – Neurotransmission in disease (52:42) – Progress in neuroscience (54:10) – Advice for young scientists