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Honors and Awards:
Research Interests:
How do you remember your phone
number, the name of your first teacher, or where you received your first
kiss? The brain has an incredible capacity to store and retrieve information
for very long periods of time. It is well established that long-term memory
formation requires new gene expression, but the mechanisms of transcriptional
regulation during memory formation are poorly understood. The goal of
my research program is to understand how transcriptional regulation contributes
to information storage in the nervous system. My laboratory has two major
research projects. The first is to understand how the NF-kB family of
transcription factors facilitates long-term memory formation. The second
project aims to understand how changes in the structure of chromatin,
brought about by epigenetic marks on the genome affixed either to histone
proteins or directly to the DNA, contribute to long-term memory formation.
Our experiments focus primarily on the hippocampus, a region of the brain
known to be crucial for formation of long-term memory. The lab uses rodent
model systems as part of a multidisciplinary approach involving behavior,
electrophysiology, pharmacology, genetics and molecular techniques.
Selected Publications:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=search&term=levenson%2Bjm
- Levenson JM, Roth TL,
Lubin FD, Miller CA, Huang I-C, Desai P, Malone LM, and Sweatt
JD. (2006). Evidence that DNA (cytosine-5) Methyltransferase Regulates Synaptic
Plasticity in the Hippocampus J Biol Chem. 281:15763-15773. PMID 16606618
- O’Riordan KJ,
Huang I-C, Pizzi M, Spano PF, Boroni F, Egli R, Desai P, Fitch O,
Malone LM, Ahn HJ, Liou H-C, Sweatt JD, and Levenson JM. (2006).
Regulation of NF-kB in the Hippocampus by Group I Metabotropic Glutamate
Receptors. J Neurosci. 26:4870-4879. PMID 16672661
- Chwang WB, O’Riordan KJ,
Levenson JM, and Sweatt JD. (2006). ERK/MAPK Regulates Hippocampal Histone
Phosphorylation in Contextual Fear Conditioning. Learning and Memory.
13:322-8. PMID 16741283
- Moretti P, Levenson JM,
Battaglia F, Teague R, Antalffy B, Armstrong D, Arancio O,
Sweatt JD, and Zoghbi HY. (2006). Learning and memory and synaptic plasticity
are impaired in a mouse model of Rett syndrome. J Neurosci. 26:319-327. PMID 16399702
- Levenson JM, O’Riordan KJ,
Brown KD, Trinh MA, Molfese D, and Sweatt JD. (2004). Regulation of
Histone Acetylation During Memory Formation in the Hippocampus. J Biol Chem. 279:40545-40559. PMID 15273246
- Levenson JM, Choi S,
Lee S-Y, Cao YA, Ahn HJ, Worley K, Pizzi M, Liou H-C, and Sweatt JD. (2004). A Bioinformatics Analysis of Memory Consolidation Reveals
Involvement of the Transcription Factor c-Rel. J Neurosci. 24:3933-3943. PMID 15102909
Selected Reviews:
- Levenson JM and Sweatt JD
(2006). Epigenetic Mechanisms – A Common Theme in Vertebrate and
Invertebrate Memory Formation. CMLS Reviews. Neurosci. 63:1009-1016. PMID 16596331
- Levenson JM and Sweatt
JD. (2005). Epigenetic Mechanisms in Memory Formation. Nature Reviews. Neurosci.
6:108-118. PMID 15654323
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