The 2026 Picower Lecture with Richard L. Huganir, PhD, Johns Hopkins University

• Speaker: Richard L. Huganir, Ph.D., Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Psychological and Brain Sciences; Director, Department of Neuroscience; Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University
• Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2026
• Time: 4:00pm
• Location: Singleton Auditorium (46-3002, Third Fl of MIT Building 46)
• Faculty Host: Linlin Fan
• Please Note: This seminar is offered in person only.

Neurotransmitter Receptors: Synaptopathies and Synaptic Engrams 

Abstract: Neurotransmitter receptors mediate signal transduction at synaptic connections between neurons in the brain. My laboratory has been elucidating the molecular mechanisms that regulate glutamate receptors, the major excitatory neurotransmitter receptors in the central nervous system. We are particularly interested in how glutamate receptor regulation is involved in learning and memory, and other higher brain processes. We have recently focused on AMPA-type glutamate receptors and studied their regulation by posttranslational modifications and by various AMPA receptor-interacting proteins. Regulation of AMPA receptors by these mechanisms modulates their proper subcellular trafficking and synaptic targeting and is critical for several forms of synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. Recent evidence has indicated that AMPA receptor plasticity may be disrupted in several neurological and psychiatric disorders. Specifically, mutations in the AMPA receptor and its interacting proteins, such as the synaptic RasGAP SynGAP1, are associated with cognitive disorders, including intellectual disability, autism, and schizophrenia. Based on these findings, we have recently been developing potential therapies for these devastating disorders.

Bio: Dr. Richard Huganir is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Professor and Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  Dr. Huganir received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell University in 1982, where he performed his thesis research in the laboratory of Dr. Efraim Racker.  He was a postdoctoral fellow with Nobel Laureate Dr. Paul Greengard at Yale University School of Medicine from 1982 to 1984. Dr. Huganir then moved to Rockefeller University as an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology from 1984 to 1988. He joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1988 as an Associate Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Dr. Huganir became the Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience in 2006. Dr. Huganir’s career has focused on synapses, the connections between nerve cells, in the brain. Dr. Huganir’s studies show that regulating neurotransmitter receptor function is a major mechanism for controlling neuronal excitability and connectivity in the brain and is critical for many higher brain processes, including learning and memory, as well as a major determinant of behavior. Dysregulation of these mechanisms underlies many neurological and psychiatric diseases, including Alzheimer’s, ALS, schizophrenia, autism, intellectual disability, PTSD, as well as chronic pain and drug addiction. Dr. Huganir served as the President and Treasurer of the Society for Neuroscience. He has received the Young Investigator Award, the Julius Axelrod Award, and the Ralph W. Gerard Prize from the Society for Neuroscience, the Goldman-Rakic Award for Cognitive Neuroscience Research from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience from the McGovern Institute at MIT. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences.