Cell Signalling and Neurochemistry

Aberrations in the structure and expression of hormones, growth factors, neurotransmitters and their receptors can give rise to diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. To understand the molecular basis of these diseases, it is essential to know how hormones, growth factors and neurotransmitters are synthesised, and how their signals are recognised, amplified and transmitted by intracellular signalling pathways in the target cells. Topics covered, to illustrate the importance of signalling in health and disease, include the structures of the major classes of signalling receptors, the mechanisms of intercellular and intracellular signal transduction, second messengers, examples of post-translational modifications such as protein phosphorylation-dephosphorylation, ubiquitination and S-nitrosylation and their impact on signalling, mechanisms of cell death and autophagy, and innate immune signalling.

• 1Describe the molecular basis of signal generation by cell surface receptors and intracellular receptors of hormones and neurotransmitters
• 2Describe the structural basis underpinning how cell signalling mediators recognise their substrates and catalyse post-translational modifications of their target proteins
• 3Devise experiments to investigate how dys-regulation of key cell signalling proteins contributes to diseases
• 4Perform computational analysis of the sequence and structure of signalling proteins
• 5Critically analyse of the current scientific literature on cell signalling and neuroscience research