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Peter Shrager, Ph.D.Professor:
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Peter Shrager was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY where he attended public school 161 along with some notable personalities including Barbara Boxer (Senator from California) and Mark Rochkind, at one time Vice President of Bell Labs. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School, one of two special high schools concentrating in science education in New York City. Peter then attended Columbia University, in a 5-year combined program in which he received an A.B. from Columbia College and a B.S. in electrical engineering.
Prior to his graduation from Columbia, Peter had evaluated the opportunities for engineering-related careers and assessed that they were rather limited. At that time, the explosive development of the U.S. consumer electronics industry had not yet occurred, and opportunities for engineers were limited largely to military or aerospace applications. However, Peter was intrigued by the emerging new field of Biomedical Engineering. Hoping to get a taste of this field, he obtained a summer job in the Department of Urology at Columbia Medical School between his junior and senior years of college. The physician with whom Peter worked was interested in kidney metabolism and needed a quantitative method for analyzing metabolites present in urine. Peter assumed the responsibility of assembling a mass spectrometer from components that were either purchased by the lab or designed and built by him. Although the mass spectrometer was completed by the end of his summer in the lab, he continued working on this project through the year. He enjoyed this experience and exposure to the laboratory environment, which reinforced his desire to use his engineering background to pursue further bioengineering training.
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At that time, only a handful of Universities offered Bioengineering training including the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, and U.C. Berkeley. From these, Peter chose to attend U.C. Berkeley, applying to their Electrical Engineering Department since there was no official program in biomedical engineering. His first year as a teaching assistant in E.E. reinforced Peter's decision that engineering with a biomedical focus was desirable to him. He began working with Stuart McKay, the inventor of a new tonometer (used for glaucoma testing) and supplemented his undergraduate training with coursework in biology and chemistry. |
Photomicrograph of rat optic nerve stained for contactin associated protein (caspr; Red) Na+ channels (green) and K+ channels (blue) |
Polarization of a developing spinal motor neuron that accompanies the
clustering of sodium channels near the axon hillock (red).
Wishing to examine in more detail the biochemical aspects of ion channels, Peter pursued postdoctoral training in membrane protein extraction and protein chemistry, working with Dan Tosteson and Peter Lauf at Duke University. After 2 years of postdoctoral work, Peter was offered a faculty position at the University of Rochester, to join the Department of Physiology, chaired by Paul Horowicz. Horowicz, working in muscle ion channel research, was interested in developing a sector of ion channel research in the department.
In 1971, Peter arrived at the University of Rochester where he has pursued his interests in the structure, function, and cell biology (e.g. localization, clustering, polarity) of ion channels within excitable membranes of constituent cells of the nervous system. At the time that Peter began his work here at the U of R, his laboratory was among the first in the country to implement real-time computer data acquisition. Laboratory computers in 1974 were the size of telephone booths, consumed 1 kilowatt of power, had a maximum memory of 32 kilobytes, processed data at 1 MHz, and cost $10,000. Peter's laboratory group continues to implement a broad spectrum of research methods including electrophysiology, molecular biology, immunocytochemistry, and in vivo and in vitro intracellular recording. Eventually, the department of Physiology was merged with Pharmacology, and Peter's primary appointment changed to Neurobiology and Anatomy. Peter currently holds appointments in the departments of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Bioengineering.
Nodes of Ranvier formed by the clustering of sodium channels in unmyelinated areas of peripheral nerves. These sodium channel clusters appear to be guided by the migration of Schwann cells during myelination processes inherent to nervous system development.
Peter's work has demonstrated in vivo that myelinating glial cells interact with neurons to form nodes of Ranvier in sciatic and optic nerves and has examined the quantitative aspects of these interactions. Further work has elucidated the molecular mechanisms that characterize interactions that occur between Schwann cells and the axons that they myelinate, and the roles that these cells play in the production of nodes of Ranvier. Additional in vitro work using spinal cord cultures address issues related to neuronal development. In part, these studies have focused upon questions related to how neurites (precursors of axons and dendrites) become polarized and the mechanisms by which ion channels are distributed and stabilized within the excitable membranes. These projects are integral to elucidating the physiological processes that are inherent to normal development and to many demyelinating and degenerative disease processes such as multiple sclerosis. Photographs of the findings from Peter's laboratory have appeared on the cover of the Journal of Physiology and in Bertil Hille's book "Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes". Additional information about the research interests and recent findings from Peter's laboratory can be found on his web page.
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Medical and graduate student education has also been a genuine interest for Peter. In his first 25 years at the U of R, Peter did a considerable amount of teaching in the Medical Student Physiology lectures and laboratories. He also taught in a number of graduate courses. In more recent years, Peter has served as the course director of Cellular Neuroscience (ANA 512/NSC 512), a core course for students in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and in the IGPN (Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Neuroscience). |
Deana Amico |
Known for his high level teaching and expectations, Peter emphasizes the training of students in the critical analysis of cellular biology papers.
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A number of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows have been trained in the Shrager Lab. Most recently, Matthew Rasband (Univ of Connecticut, Farmington), Katia Kazarinova (University of Rochester), Andrew Custer (University of California, Davis), and Ian Vabinck (Federal Bureau of Investigation) received Ph.D.s under Peter's mentorship. |
Andrea Venosa, Xiaorong Xu |
Currently, his laboratory personnel include postdoctoral fellow Xiaorong Xu, and technician Andrea Venosa. Technician Deana Amico recently obtained an MBA from the Simon School and has accepted a corporate position.
Andrea Venosa, Deana Amico, Xiaorong Xu, and Peter Shrager
Peter lives in Pittsford with his wife, Diane, a teacher of English as a second language at Council Rock Elementary School in Brighton. In their free time, Peter and Diane enjoy traveling throughout Europe and the United States. Most recently, they visited the Grand Canyon and Western U.S. with their daughter Sarah, a third year student at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.