Seth Grant

Dr. Seth Grant is internationally recognized for his seminal contributions to understanding the molecular biology of brain synapses and their function in health and disease. He identified the remarkable complexity of the postsynaptic proteome (PSP) of excitatory synapses, its physical organization into complexes and supercomplexes and discovered its role in >130 common and rare brain diseases. The characterization of the PSP in multiple species revealed how synapses evolved from simple bacterial signaling mechanism to the complex machinery in vertebrates, which he showed drove the cognitive complexity of vertebrates. He discovered the Genetic Lifespan Calendar, a genomic programme that could explain how schizophrenia susceptibility genes are timed to exert their effects in young adults. He established the Genes to Cognition programme which is the largest genetic study undertaken into the synaptic molecular mechanisms underlying behaviour and physiology and discovered that innate and learned behaviours are built from unique combinations of postsynaptic proteins. His most recent work has opened a new phase, and scale, in understanding synapses with the first single-synapse resolution molecular maps – the synaptome - of the brain, uncovering unprecedented spatiotemporal synapse diversity organised into an architecture that correlates with the structural and functional connectomes. He has been committed to the provision of large-scale datasets, resources and education material.

Seth graduated from the medical school of Sydney University then worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Columbia University, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Edinburgh University and held honorary appointments at Cambridge and Melbourne Universities. He was awarded the Kenneth B Myer award and Foundation Medal from Wesley College, is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science and Member of Academia Europaea.

Title of talk: 
Synaptomes, synapse diversity and plasticity  

Affiliation:

University of Edinburgh

Seth Grant Lab