Thomas W. Abrams

Biography

Dr. Abrams has been studying the cellular and molecular basis of associative and non-associative learning for several decades using the important neurobiological model Aplysia. In his early work, he investigated the role of calmodulin-sensitive adenylyl cyclase as an associative integrator during learning. He was the first to propose that dually-regulated proteins may function as coincidence detectors or logical elements in memory formation, through these early studies of the associative role of adenylyl cyclase. This research on adenylyl cyclase in Aplysia led him to clone four adenylyl cyclase isoforms and characterize their role in neuronal plasticity.

Research Interest

Learning and memory, synaptic plasticity, neuromodulation, ionic currents, transcriptomics, cell signaling, protein kinase C, adenylyl cyclase, modeling of neuromodulatory signaling pathways.