Skip to main content

Main navigation

  • About BCS
    • Mission
    • History
    • Building 46
      • Building 46 Room Reservations
    • Leadership
    • Employment
    • Contact
      • BCS Spot Awards
      • Building 46 Email and Slack
    • Directory
  • Faculty + Research
    • Faculty
    • Areas of Research
    • Postdoctoral Research
      • Postdoctoral Association and Committees
    • Core Facilities
    • InBrain
      • InBRAIN Collaboration Data Sharing Policy
  • Academics
    • Course 9: Brain and Cognitive Sciences
    • Course 6-9: Computation and Cognition
      • Course 6-9 MEng
    • Brain and Cognitive Sciences PhD
      • How to Apply
      • Program Details
      • Classes
      • Research
      • Student Life
      • For Current Students
    • Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Program
      • How to Apply to MCN
      • MCN Faculty and Research Areas
      • MCN Curriculum
      • Model Systems
      • MCN Events
      • MCN FAQ
      • MCN Contacts
    • Computationally-Enabled Integrative Neuroscience Program
    • Research Scholars Program
    • Course Offerings
  • News + Events
    • News
    • Events
    • Recordings
    • Newsletter
  • Community + Culture
    • Community + Culture
    • Community Stories
    • Outreach
      • MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP)
      • Post-Baccalaureate Research Scholars
      • Conferences, Outreach and Networking Opportunities
    • Get Involved (MIT login required)
    • Resources (MIT login Required)
    • Upcoming Events
  • Give to BCS
    • Join the Champions of the Brain Fellows Society
    • Meet Our Donors

Utility Menu

  • Directory
  • Apply to BCS
  • Contact Us

Footer

  • Contact Us
  • Employment
  • Be a Test Subject
  • Login

Footer 2

  • McGovern
  • Picower

Utility Menu

  • Directory
  • Apply to BCS
  • Contact Us
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Menu
MIT

Main navigation

  • About BCS
    • Mission
    • History
    • Building 46
    • Leadership
    • Employment
    • Contact
    • Directory
  • Faculty + Research
    • Faculty
    • Areas of Research
    • Postdoctoral Research
    • Core Facilities
    • InBrain
  • Academics
    • Course 9: Brain and Cognitive Sciences
    • Course 6-9: Computation and Cognition
    • Brain and Cognitive Sciences PhD
    • Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Program
    • Computationally-Enabled Integrative Neuroscience Program
    • Research Scholars Program
    • Course Offerings
  • News + Events
    • News
    • Events
    • Recordings
    • Newsletter
  • Community + Culture
    • Community + Culture
    • Community Stories
    • Outreach
    • Get Involved (MIT login required)
    • Resources (MIT login Required)
    • Upcoming Events
  • Give to BCS
    • Join the Champions of the Brain Fellows Society
    • Meet Our Donors

Directory

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Directory
  3. Troy Littleton
Littleton resized.png
Littleton
Troy
M.D., Ph.D.
Menicon Professor of Neuroscience
Biology; Brain & Cognitive Sciences
Investigator
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Program Leader
MCN Program
Faculty Appointment
Joint
Building
46-3243
Email
troy@mit.edu
Phone
6174522605
Lab website
Administrative Asst
vmoss@mit.edu
    About

    J. Troy Littleton, M.D., Ph.D.,  is the Menicon Professor of Neuroscience in the Departments of Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences and The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. Dr. Littleton earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Baylor College of Medicine. After completing M.D./Ph.D. studies, Dr. Littleton did postdoctoral work at the Univisity of Wisconsin in Madison before moving to MIT in 2000, where he has been charactering how alterations in synapse formation and function contribute to synaptic plasticity and neurological disease. Dr. Littleton has received numerous awards for his research, including a Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship, a Searle Scholar Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Human Frontiers Science Program Fellowship, the Poitras Scholar Award in Neuroscience and a Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering. Currently, Dr. Littleton serves as Director of MIT’s Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Graduate Program.

    Research

    Research in the Littleton lab is aimed at characterizing the mechanisms by which neurons form synaptic connections, how synapses transmit information, and how synapses change during learning and memory. The lab combines molecular biology, protein biochemistry, electrophysiology and neuroimaging approaches with Drosophila genetics to address these questions. Given defects in synaptic connectivity and function contribute to neurodevelopmental diseases like autism, and loss of synapses is a major feature of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, work in the lab also provides critical insights into how diverse neurological diseases damage or disrupt synaptic function. The lab uses the fruitfly Drosophila as a model system for these studies. Despite the dramatic differences in complexity between Drosophila and humans, the molecular components of the synapse and the functional mechanisms they govern appear remarkably similar. Drosophila provides key advantages for this work, as neuronal development is very rapid and can be interrogated with genetic and imaging technologies that can’t be employed in humans. The lab has developed several technologies and toolkits that allow visualization of synapse formation and function in living animals. Using these new transgenic tools to visualize single active zone exocytosis, the lab is characterizing how synapses work, how they undergo plasticity, and how they contribute to both evoked and spontaneous fusion. In addition, the lab is defining the molecular machines that regulate both evoked and spontaneous synaptic transmission, as well as synaptic plasticity.

    Teaching

    9.015J Molecular and cellular neuroscience core I
    9.09J Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology

    Publications

    Weiss, S., Melom, J.E., Ormerod, K.G., Zhang, Y.V., Littleton, J.T. (2019) Glial Ca2+ signaling links endocytosis to K+ buffering around neuronal somas to regulate excitability. eLife 8:e44186.

    Cunningham, K.L., Littleton, J.T. (2019) Neurons regulate synaptic strength through homeostatic scaling of active zones. J. Cell Biology 5:1434-1435.

    Akbergenova, Y., Cunningham, K.L., Zhang, Y.V, Weiss, S., Littleton, J.T. (2018) Characterization of developmental and molecular factors underlying release heterogeneity at Drosophila synapses. eLife 7:e38268.

    Guan, Z., Bykhovskaia, M., Jorquera, R.A., Sutton, R.B., Akbergenova, Y., Littleton, J.T. (2017) A Synaptotagmin suppressor screen indicates SNARE binding controls the timing and Ca2+ cooperativity of vesicle fusion. eLife 6:e28409.

    Akbergenova, Y., Littleton, J.T. (2017) Pathogenic Huntington alters BMP signaling and synaptic growth through local disruptions of endosomal compartments. J. Neuroscience 37:3425-3439.

    Don't miss our next newsletter!
    Sign Up

    Footer menu

    • Contact Us
    • Employment
    • Be a Test Subject
    • Login

    Footer 2

    • McGovern
    • Picower
    Brain and Cognitive Sciences

    MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 46-2005

    Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 | (617) 253-5748

    For Emergencies | Accessibility

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology