Mary B. Kennedy

Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, the process underlying formation of memory in the central nervous system.

She moved into the field of neuroscience during postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School with Edward Kravitz, and then at Yale University with Paul Greengard.

[8] With Peter Seeburg, they then showed that the second PDZ domain binds a terminal S-X-V motif at the carboxyl tail of GluN2B, an NMDA receptor subunit.

[10] Her work was the first discovery of a PDZ domain and established that the PSD is a scaffold containing signaling enzymes and receptors that function as a molecular machine to regulate synaptic strength.

[14] She is collaborating with Tom Bartol and Terry Sejnowski at the Salk Institute to create kinetic models of biochemical signaling in postsynaptic spines.