James Nagy, PhD, MSc, BSc

Research themes 

• Neuroscience and physiology
• Electrical synapses in the central nervous system
• Molecular structure of electrical synapses
• Regulation of electrical synaptic transmission

Keywords

• Brain and spinal cord
• Electrical synapses and electrical coupling
• Electrical synaptic transmission
• Mixed chemical/electrical synapses
• Gap junctions and connexins
• Immunofluorescence imaging
• Spinal cord injury

Research affiliations

• Spinal Cord Research Center
• Division of Neuroscience

Research groups

• Principal investigator, neuroscience, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Spinal Cord Research Center
• International Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood from Care (INTRAC)
• SPOR Evidence Alliance Research Network
• Specialized Services for Children and Youth (SSCY) Research and Evaluation Committee

Research summary

Dr. James Nagy’s research program for over three decades has centered on gap junctions between cells in the CNS, and is currently focused on:

1) proteomic, molecular, biochemical and immunofluorescence imaging approaches to identify the multimolecular structural and regulatory protein composition of electrical synapses composed of connexin36, to determine the functions of those proteins, and to investigate intracellular signalling pathways and mechanisms that serve to regulate connexin assembly, degradation and turnover in gap junctions, and processes that regulate dynamic events of electrical synaptic transmission;

2) Identification of connexins expressed in neurons and related cells, delineation of sites where connexins form electrical synapses in mammalian neuronal circuitry and determination of the functional roles of those synapses in systems physiology.