Education & Professional Experience

• B.A. in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University
• Ph.D. in Neuroscience, UCLA
• Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley

Teaching

• Chemistry 25: General Chemistry Laboratory

Research Interests

Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Learning and Memory.

My lab is interested in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying learning and memory in the brain. In particular, I am interested in understanding how rapid, specific macromolecular changes occur at the synapse, the junction between two neurons. It is widely held that the strengthening or weakening of synaptic strength corresponds to learning and memory.

To study synaptic changes, our lab utilizes rodent hippocampal neurons and a wide array of cellular and molecular approaches. Our eventual goal is to identify key molecular players at the synapse and ascertain their role in the expression of learning and memory.

For more details and information, see Dr. Poon's personal website.

Selected Publications

Poon MM and Chen, L, Retinoic acid-gated sequence-specific translational control by RARα, PNAS, 2008

Maghsoodi B, Poon MM, Nam CI, Aoto J, Ting P, Chen L, Dendritic retinoic acid receptor RARa mediates homeostatic synaptic plasticity, PNAS, 105:16015-20, 2008.

Aoto J, Nam CI, Poon MM, Ting P, Chen L, Synaptic signaling by all-trans retinoic acid in homeostatic plasticity, Neuron, 23;60:308-20, 2008. (co-first author)

Poon MM and Martin KC, Synaptic structure: translational regulation at the synapse, in The New Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Larry Squire et al. (eds.), Elsevier Science, Oxford, England. 2008.

Poon MM, Choi SH, Geschwind DH, Jamieson C and Martin KC, Identification of dendritically localized mRNAs in rodent hippocampal neurons,J. Neuroscience, 26, 13390-13399, 2006.