Kosik - Synaptic Nanomachines for Information Transfer Systems

TEAM
Bio-inspired Materials and Energy

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Our focus is the synapse. Because the synapse is too complex to reconstitute as a synthetic biological unit, we need a means to reduce its complexity and thereby find the minimal components required for its computational functions. Techniques such as knock-out animals or RNAi can only be informative to a limited extent, because the components of the synapse are so intertwined that single gene deletion experiments are as likely to reveal homeostatic mechanisms as they are to reveal the underlying functions of the key components. We propose that the solution to the complexity problem of synapses lies in their evolutionary history. An emerging theme as genomes become available from many organisms is that complexity is built upon a large repertoire of genes that existed before the appearance of morphological complexity. Our preliminary data supports the existence of many synaptic genes in organisms prior to the evolution of synapses and these complexes can serve as the core structure for building a bio-electronic chimeric synapse.