Kelsey C. Martin

What is molecular basis of learning and memory? Kelsey Martin has used Aplysia californica, a system well suited to cell and molecular analysis, and the mouse hippocampus, a system accessible to genetic and molecular manipulation, to understand how activity-dependent changes in gene expression give rise to long-term memories. Martin has discovered the critical importance of local translation of mRNAs during experience-dependent synaptic plasticity, and has uncovered mechanisms regulating this process. She has also discovered mechanisms by which synaptic stimulation leads to changes in the expression of genes, a hallmark of the transformation of short to long-term memory.