Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. From now until the launch of Oxford Events, new events cannot be published or edited on OxTalks while all existing records are migrated to the new platform. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period.
From 16th, Oxford Events will launch on a new website: events.ox.ac.uk, and event submissions will resume. You will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
Long-term memory storage depends on transcription in the nucleus, an organelle shared by all synapses of a neuron. This raises a question: Are long-term changes cell-wide, or can induced gene products be spatially compartmentalized so that they selectively alter the function of some synapses and not others? In Aplysia, a neuron-specific isoform of cytoplasmic polyadenylation element–binding protein (CPEB) regulates local synaptic protein synthesis. Local protein synthesis serves two functions: (1) it marks the activated synapse and thus confers synapse specificity, and (2) it stabilizes the synaptic growth associated with long-term memory. CPEB may serve as a stabilizer because it has prion-like properties. Prion proteins have the unusual ability to fold into functionally distinct conformations, one of which is self-perpetuating. The dominant, prion-like form of CPEB has the greatest capacity to stimulate translation of CPEB-regulated mRNA. Conversion of CPEB to a prion-like state in stimulated synapses may help to maintain long-term synaptic changes associated with memory storage.
