.: Department of Biology: U.J. McMahan

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Dr. U.J. McMahan received a B.A. degree in Biology (1960) from Westminster College (Fulton, Missouri) and a Ph.D. in Anatomy (1964) from University of Tennessee Medical Units (Memphis). Beginning in 1965, he was an Instructor of Anatomy at Yale University School of Medicine for 2 years, and then Instructor, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School for 10 years. Dr. McMahan was Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford University from1977 to 2008, where he has served in a variety leadership positions, including Director of the Interdepartmental Neurosciences Ph.D. program (1986-1991), Chair of Department of Neurobiology (1987-1992), and Chair of the Committee on Graduate Studies (1989-1990). He was awarded Professor of Neurobiology and of Structural Biology Emeritus at Stanford in 2008. In the same year he was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University. Dr. McMahan has published over 60 research papers. His research contributions have been recognized by numerous awards, including a Career Development Award from NIH (1973-1977) and the Jacob Javits Neurosciences Investigator Award from NIH (1984-1991 and 1991-1998). In 1998, Dr. McMahan shared the international award Fondation IPSEN/Fondation de France Prix (Plasticite Neuronale) with two other researchers. Dr. McMahan also currently serves as Director of the Visiting Lecture Team Program for the International Brain Research Organization, an arm of UNESCO, and as such he organizes and teaches in intensive neuroscience short-courses in economically underdeveloped countries throughout the world several times per year.

U.J. McMahan

U.J. McMahan
Professor and Department Head

3258 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-3258

Administration Office:
Butler Hall
Room 100D
979-845-2301

Research Office:
Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building
Room 3126A

Lab:
Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building
Room 3218
979-458-5564

Fax: 979-458-3506
Email: grantser@mail.bio.tamu.edu

Research

McMahan and his research group are temporarily housed in Biological Sciences Building East, but they will provide one of the cornerstones for Texas A&M’s new Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building and its related teaching and research efforts when it opens in 2010. His work focuses on how the nervous system’s synapses form in the embryo and function in the adult in various animal species. It relies on high-resolution imaging, chemical characterization and experimental manipulation of specific macromolecules and organelles, which altogether provide insights unobtainable via any other approach. The findings bear directly on the problems of understanding the molecular basis of human brain diseases and restoring brain function after trauma.

Nagwaney, S., Harlow, M.L., Jung, J.H., Szule, J.A., Ress, D., Xu, J., Marshall, R.M. and U.J. McMahan. Macromolecular connections of active zone
material to docked synaptic vesicles and presynaptic membrane at neuromuscular junctions of mouse. J. Comp. Neurol., 2009 in press.

Ress, D.B., Harlow, M.L., Marshall, R.M. and U.J. McMahan. Methods for generating high-resolution structural models from electron microscope tomography data. Structure : 12 (10):1763-1774, 2004.

Ress, D., Harlow , M.L., Marshall , R.M. and U. J. McMahan. Optimization method for isodensity surface models obtained with electron microscope tomography data. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2003. Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the IEEE 1: 774-77, 2003.

Harlow , M.L., Ress, D., Stoschek, A., Marshall , R.M. and U.J. McMahan. The architecture of active zone material at the frog's neuromuscular junction. Nature 409: 479-484, 2001.

Ress, D., Harlow , M.L., Schwarz, M., Marshall , R.M., and U.J. McMahan. Automatic acquisition of fiducial markers and alignment of images in tilt series for electron tomography. J. Electron Microscopy 48: 277-287, 1999.

Mathiesen, I., Rimer, M., Ashtari, O., Cohen, I., McMahan, U.J. and Lømo, T. Regulation of the number, size and distribution of agrin-induced postsynaptic-like apparatus in adult skeletal muscle by electrical muscle activity. Mol. Cell. Neurosci. 13: 207-217, 1999.

Rimer, M., Cohen, I. , Lømo, T., Burden, S.J. and U.J.McMahan. Neuregulin and erbB receptors at neuromuscular junctions and at agrin-induced postsynaptic-like apparatus in skeletal muscle. Mol. Cell. Neurosci. 12:1-15, 1998.

Rimer, M., Mathiesen, I. , Lømo, T. and U.J. McMahan. g-AChR/ e-AChR switch at agrin-induced postsynaptic-like apparatus in skeletal muscle. Mol. Cell. Neurosci. 4:254-263, 1997.

Cohen, I. , Rimer, M., Lømo, T. and U.J. McMahan. Agrin-induced postsynaptic-like apparatus in vivo. Mol. Cell. Neurosci. 4:237-253, 1997.
Chang, H., Riese, D.J., Gilbert, W., Sterns, D. and U.J. McMahan. Ligands for ErbB- family receptors encoded by a neuregulin-like gene. Nature 387: 509-511, 1997.

Smith, M.A., Magil-Solc, C., Rupp F., Tao, M. Y.-M., Schilling, J.W., Snow, P., and U.J. McMahan. 1992 Isolation and Characterization of a
cDNA that encodes an agrin homolog in the marine ray. Mol. Cell. Neurosci. 3: 406-417.

Reist, N.E., Werle, M.J. and U.J. McMahan. Agrin released by motor neurons induces the aggregation of AChRs at neuromuscular junctions.
Neuron 8: 865-868, 1992.

McMahan, U.J. The agrin hypothesis. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 50:407-418, 1990.

Nitkin, R.M., Smith, M.A., Magill, C., Fallon, J.R., Yao, Y-M.M., Wallace, B.G., and U.J. McMahan. Identification of agrin, a synaptic organizing
protein from Torpedo electric organ. J. Cell Biol. l05:2471-2478, 1987.