Gender	Male
E-mail	greg.phillips@mssm.edu
Education and Training	Ph.D. , Scripps Research Institute
	Postdoctoral , Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Visit Dr. Greg Phillips's Intracellular Trafficking and Synaptic Development Lab for more information.

Education and Training	Ph.D. , Scripps Research Institute
	Postdoctoral , Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Specific Clinical/Research Interest:
Intracellular trafficking and cell-cell interactions in synapse development
Current Students: James Reilly
Postdoctoral Fellows: Monica Fernandez-Monreal
Research Personnel: Hugo Hanson

Summary of Research Studies:
We are interested in understanding how the neurons of the brain recognize each other to generate excitatory chemical synapses in the appropriate pattern. Ultimately, disruptions in connectivity are factors in many neurodevelopmental disorders. We have focused on a class of adhesion/recognition molecules termed the clustered protocadherins (Pcdhs). We demonstrated that these molecules can mediate cell-cell interactions with homophilic properties. However, we found that they are rarely at the cell surface and are retained in a prominent intracellular pool. We suspect that the Pcdhs could be markers for an as yet unidentified secretory pathway that is important in postnatal neuronal development and synapse formation. We are currently identifying the types of organelles that harbor Pcdhs and how they participate in trafficking of synaptic proteins to the cell membrane.
Visit Dr. Greg Phillips's Intracellular Trafficking and Synaptic Development Lab for more information.

Fernandez-Monreal M, Kang S, Phillips GR. Gamma-protocadherin homophilic interaction and intracellular trafficking is controlled by the cytoplasmic domain in neurons. Mol. Cell Neurosci 2008; In press.

Phillips GR, Huang JK, Wang Y, Tanaka H, Shapiro L, Zhang W, Shan WS, Arndt K, Frank M, Gordon RE, Gawinowicz MA, Zhao Y, Colman DR. The presynaptic particle web: ultrastructure composition, dissolution, and reconstitution. Neuron 2001 Oct 11; 32(1): 63-77.

Phillips GR, Tanaka H, Frank M, Elste A, Fidler L, Benson DL, Colman DR. Gamma-protocadherins are targeted to subsets of synapses and intracellular organelles in neurons. J Neurosci 2003 Jun 15; 23(12): 5096-104.

Jontes JD, Phillips GR. Selective stabilization and synaptic specificity: a new cell-biological model. Trends Neurosci 2006 Apr; 29(4): 186-91.

Khaing ZZ, Fidler L, Nandy N, Phillips GR. Structural stabilization of CNS synapses during postnatal development in rat cortex. J Neurochem 2006 Jul; 98(2): 471-80.