FENS-IBRO - Lerma, Juan

Lerma, Juan

FENS-IBRO European Neuroscience Schools Programme Committee Member

( representative of IBRO 2010-2012 )

Juan Lerma
Instituto de Neurociencias
Universidad Miguel Hernandez- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Campus de San Juan
03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant
Alicante
Espana
E-mail: jlerma@umh.es
Website: www.ina.umh.es

Date and place of birth

08-06-1955, Ciudad Real, Spain

Summary of Scientific Achievements

After a stay at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NY, USA), Juan Lerma returned to Madrid in 1990 as Group Leader at the Cajal Institute. There he started to work on structure and function of glutamate receptors. For the last 15 years, he has been studying kainate receptors, a type of glutamate receptor.
Dr. Lerma's group provided first evidence that kainate receptors are functional in neurons of the central nervous system (PNAS 1993). He also provided evidence that the 2,3-benzodiazepine, GYKI53655, behaved as a specific antagonist of AMPA receptors, having no action on kainate receptors (Neuron 1995). This finding opened up the possibility to study these receptors in detail. Since then, he has proposed the existence of presynaptic kainate receptors which regulate the release of GABA (Neuron 1997), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, providing a rational basis to understand how kainate receptors participate in epileptic phenomena and highlighting the relevance of kainate receptors as potential targets for antiepileptic drugs.
More recently, his group has found that kainate receptors have a dual mechanism for signaling in that they are ion channels but also can trigger a second messenger-mediated cascade which involves a G-protein activation (Neuron, 1998; P.N.A.S. 2000; Neuron, 2003). The finding that an ion channel-forming receptor is able to signal through a G-protein mediated metabotropic mechanism has opened new vistas on the operating mode of glutamate receptors of the ionotropic type (EMBO J., 2007; Neuron, 2009).

Present position

Profesor de Investigación CSIC
Director, Instituto Neurociencias de Alicante (CSIC-UMH)

Curriculum Vitae

Education

1978 M.S. Biology, Universidad Complutense, Madrid
1983 Doctor in Sciences, Universidad Autónoma, Madrid
Dept Research, Hospital Ramón y Cajal
Dept Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Awards and Distinctions

1998
Distinction by Fundación Ciencias de la Salud
2000
Elected EMBO member
2002
Santiago Grisolía Chair Award
2002
Award to the Scientific Excellence 'Alonso Gabriel de Herrera'
2004
CEOE Award to the Sciences
2005
Elected EDAB member
2005
XI Award 'Alberto Sols' to the Best Research Activity
2009
President-elect of Spanish Neuroscience Society (SENC)

Selected Publications

  • Lerma, J. (1992) Spermine regulates N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor desensitization, Neuron, 8:343-352
  • Lerma, J., Paternain, A.V., Naranjo, J.R. and Mellström, B. (1993) Functional kainate-selective glutamate receptors in cultured hippocampal cells, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90, 11688-11692
  • Paternain, A.V., Morales, M. and Lerma, J. (1995) Selective antagonism of AMPA receptors unmasks kainate receptor-mediated responses in hippocampal neurons, Neuron, 14, 185-189
  • Ruano, D., Lambolez, B., Rossier, J., Paternain, A.V. and Lerma, J. (1995) Kainate receptor subunits expressed in single cultured hippocampal neurons: molecular and functional variants by RNA editing, Neuron, 14, 1009-1017
  • Rodríguez-Moreno, A., Herreras, O. and Lerma, J. (1997) Kainate Receptors Presynaptically Downregulate GABAergic Inhibition in the Rat Hippocampus. Neuron, 19, 893-901
  • Villarroel, A., Regalado, M.P. and Lerma, J., (1998) Glycine-independent NMDA receptor desensitization: Localization of structural determinants. Neuron, 20, 329-339
  • Rodríguez-Moreno, A., and Lerma, J. (1998) Kainate receptor modulation of GABA release involves a metabotropic function. Neuron, 20, 1211-1218. (Cover Caption)
  • Rodríguez-Moreno, A., López-García, J.C. and Lerma, J. (2000) Two populations of kainate receptors with separate signaling mechanisms in hippocampal interneurons. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA. 97, 1293-1298
  • Lerma, J., Paternain, A.V., Rodríguez-Moreno, A., and López-García, J.C (2001) Molecular Physiology of Kainate Receptors. Physiologial Reviews. 81, 971-998 (Invited review)
  • Regalado, M. P., Villarroel, A. and Lerma, J. (2001) Inter-subunit cooperativity in the NMDA receptor. Neuron. 32, 1085-1096
  • Lerma, J. (2003). Roles and rules of kainate receptors in synaptic transmission. Nature Rev Neurosci 4, 481-95
  • Frankle, G., Lerma, J., and Laruelle, M. (2003) The synaptic hypothesis of schizophrenia. Neuron 39, 205-16
  • Rozas, J.L., Paternain A.V. and Lerma J. (2003) Non-canonical signaling by ionotropic kainate receptors. Neuron 39, 543-553
  • Paternain, A.V., Cohen, A., Stern-Bach, Y. and Lerma, J. (2003) A role for extracellular Na+ in the channel gating of native and recombinant kainate receptors. J Neuroscience 23, 8641-8648
  • Christensen, JK, Paternain, AV, Selak, S, Ahring PK and Lerma, J. (2004) A mosaic of functional kainate receptors in hippocampal interneurons. J Neuroscience 24, 8986-93
  • Lerma J. (2006) Kainate Receptor Physiology, Curr. Op. Pharmacol. 6, 89-97
  • Rivera R, Rozas JL and Lerma J (2007) PKC-dependent Autoregulation of Membrane Kainate Receptors. EMBO Journal, 26, 4359-67
  • Selak S, Paternain AV, Aller IM, Picó E, Rivera R, Lerma J. (2009) A role for SNAP25 in internalization of kainate receptors and synaptic plasticity. Neuron 63, 357-71