Dr. Robert C. Malenka
Dr. Robert C. Malenka is the Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Nancy Pritzker Laboratory at Stanford University. Dr. Malenka received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and then completed a residency in psychiatry at Stanford. He has been a world leader in elucidating the mechanisms underlying the action of neurotransmitters in the mammalian brain and the molecular mechanisms by which neural circuits are reorganized by experience. His many contributions over the last 25 years have laid the groundwork for a much more sophisticated understanding of the mechanisms by which neurons communicate and the adaptations in synaptic communication which underlie all forms of normal and pathological behavior. Because of his training as both a clinical psychiatrist and cellular neurobiologist, he has been at the forefront of helping to apply the knowledge gained from basic neuroscience research to the treatment and prevention of major neuropsychiatric disorders.
His major focus with regard to the Stanford Center for Research and Treatment of Down Syndrome is to help elucidate the abnormalities in neuronal communication in the various mouse models of Down syndrome. Toward this end, his laboratory uses sophisticated electrophysiological, anatomical and molecular techniques to study the properties of individual excitatory and inhibitory synapses. Recent work has found that a phenomenon thought to underlie some forms of learning and memory (termed long-term potentiation) is abnormal in a mouse model of Down syndrome. Future studies will be aimed at understanding the detailed mechanisms that are responsible for this abnormality and examining the effects of drugs that might repair this deficit.
