Dr. Nancy Wayne
Reproductive Neuroendocrinology
53-159 CHS
310- 794 -1159
nwayne@mednet.ucla.edu 
Teaching Activities

Research Interests:

The focus of my research is to understand cell physiological mechanisms controlling reproduction.  In vertebrates, there are neurons in the central nervous system that synthesize and secrete the decapeptide hormone called gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) -- these are the command cells that control all aspects of reproduction.  Because GnRH neurons are few in number and scattered in the CNS, their cell physiology has been difficult or unfeasible to study.  We have overcome this obstacle by using transgenic fish in which GnRH neurons are genetically tagged with fluorescent proteins for identification in living intact brain and in embryos.  This allows us to target single, identified neurons within their neural network for neurophysiological analysis under different reproductive and developmental conditions.  We use a combination of electrophysiology and optical imaging to analyze neurophysiological functions under different reproductive and developmental conditions.  In collaboration with molecular geneticists, we use transgenic and gene knock-down strategies to manipulate gene expression.

Representative Publications:

Wayne NL, Kuwahara K, Aida K, Nagahama Y, Okubo K. (2005)
Whole-cell electrophysiology of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons that epxress green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the terminal nerve of transgenic medaka (Oryzias latipes).
Biol. Reprod.; 73: 1228-34.

Lee W, Wayne NL. (2004)
Secretion of locally synthesized neurohormone from neurites of peptidergic neurons.
J. Neurochem.; 88: 532-7.

Dyer JR, Michel S, Lee W, Castellucci V, Wayne NL, Sossin WS. (2003)
An activity dependent switch to cap-independent translation triggered by eIF4E dephosphorylation in neurons.  Nature Neurosci. 6: 219-20.

Synapse in Xenopus 
Nerve-muscle cell culture

From Wayne et al., 2005