Congratulations to Lara Terry, who has just had a paper accepted in JBC. Based on this paper she was asked to present a seminar at the European Calcium Society General Assembly plenary session in honor of the memory of Mike Berridge.
The inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor IP3R is a ubiquitous intracellular Ca2+ release channel which plays fundamental roles in a diverse array of physiological responses. More recently, an ever-increasing number of mutations in the protein have has been reported to be associated with a range of human disease including spinocerebellar ataxia, Gillespie syndrome, peripheral neuropathies and anhidrosis. Lara Terry's thesis project has focused on investigating the mechanisms which underlie alterations of channel function of these mutations. Recently some of her work "Disease associated mutations in Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor impair channel function" was accepted for publication in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
An exciting consequence of the publication is that Lara has been invited to speak at the European Calcium Society "Frontiers in Calcium Signaling" mini symposium in honor of the memory of Sir Michael Berridge, who passed away earlier this year. As many of you know, Mike Berridge is a towering figure in the calcium signaling field having been pivotal in the discovery of IP3 as a second messenger, together with first demonstrating its role to release Ca2+ from intracellular stores. Notably, Lara is one of only six speakers presenting at the meeting, the others being past students of Mike's. Please join us in congratulating Lara on this recognition of her excellent work.