Henrique von Gersdorff, Ph.D.

  • Professor, Vollum Institute
  • Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Medicine
  • Senior Scientist, Vollum Institute
  • Neuroscience Graduate Program, School of Medicine
  • Physiology and Pharmacology Graduate Program, School of Medicine
  • Ophthalmology, School of Medicine
  • Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, School of Medicine

Biography

Henrique von Gersdorff earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Stony Brook University in New York. He received his B.S. in Physics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was a research scientist in high-energy physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and had postdoctoral fellowships at Stony Brook University and the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Department of Membrane Biophysics, Göttingen. In 1998 he was appointed assistant scientist in the Vollum Institute and was promoted to scientist in 2004 and senior scientist in 2009. von Gersdorff also holds a faculty appointment in the Physiology and Pharmacology department at OHSU.

The von Gersdorff lab is focused on sensory neuroscience research, primarily the auditory and visual systems. Sensory information is conveyed by neurons and synapses specialized to faithfully transmit large amounts of information at high rates. The lab uses patch clamp electrophysiology and calcium imaging techniques to study the synaptic physiology in the auditory hair cell synapses, the specialized synapses in the auditory brainstem, and the ribbon-type synapses of the retina.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 1983, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
    • Ph.D., 1989, University of Minnesota
    • Ph.D., 1995, Stony Brook University

Memberships and associations:

  • Editor-in-Chief, Synapse (2013-present)

Areas of interest

  • exocytosis and endocytosis of synaptic vesicles
  • short and long-term plasticity in the retina and brainstem
  • electrophysiology of auditory pathway
  • ribbon synapses

Additional information

Honors and awards

  • Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany (2012)
  • Pew Foundation for Biomedical Sciences Research Scholar Award (1999-2003)
  • Alfred P. Sloan Research Scholar Award in Neuroscience (1999-2001)
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), White House Award (1999)

Publications

Publications

  • A melanopsin ganglion cell subtype forms a dorsal retinal mosaic projecting to the supraoptic nucleus

    Nature communications
    1. Michael H. Berry
    2. Michael Moldavan
    3. Tavita Garrett
    4. Marc Meadows
    5. Olga Cravetchi
    6. Elizabeth White
    7. Joseph Leffler
    8. Henrique von Gersdorff
    9. Kevin M. Wright
    10. Charles N. Allen
    11. Benjamin Sivyer

  • Cell type specializations of the vocal-motor cortex in songbirds

    Cell Reports
    1. Alexander A. Nevue
    2. Benjamin M. Zemel
    3. Samantha R. Friedrich
    4. Henrique von Gersdorff
    5. Claudio V. Mello

  • Functional maturation of the rod bipolar to AII-amacrine cell ribbon synapse in the mouse retina

    Cell Reports
    1. Mean Hwan Kim
    2. Paulo Strazza
    3. Teresa Puthussery
    4. Owen P. Gross
    5. W. Rowland Taylor
    6. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • Motor cortex analogue neurons in songbirds utilize Kv3 channels to generate ultranarrow spikes

    eLife
    1. Benjamin M. Zemel
    2. Alexander A. Nevue
    3. Leonardo E.S. Tavares
    4. Andre Dagostin
    5. Peter V. Lovell
    6. Dezhe Z. Jin
    7. Claudio V. Mello
    8. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • Trophoblast glycoprotein is required for efficient synaptic vesicle exocytosis from retinal rod bipolar cells

    Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
    1. Colin M. Wakeham
    2. Qing Shi
    3. Gaoying Ren
    4. Tammie L. Haley
    5. Robert M. Duvoisin
    6. Henrique von Gersdorff
    7. Catherine W. Morgans

  • Glycine release is potentiated by cAMP via EPAC2 and Ca21 stores in a retinal interneuron

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Marc A. Meadows
    2. Veeramuthu Balakrishnan
    3. Xiaohan Wang
    4. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • Molecular mechanism of prestin electromotive signal amplification

    Cell
    1. Jingpeng Ge
    2. Johannes Elferich
    3. Sepehr Dehghani-Ghahnaviyeh
    4. Zhiyu Zhao
    5. Marc Meadows
    6. Henrique von Gersdorff
    7. Emad Tajkhorshid
    8. Eric Gouaux

  • Resurgent Na+ currents promote ultrafast spiking in projection neurons that drive fine motor control

    Nature communications
    1. Benjamin M. Zemel
    2. Alexander A. Nevue
    3. Andre Dagostin
    4. Peter V. Lovell
    5. Claudio V. Mello
    6. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • How to build a fast and highly sensitive sound detector that remains robust to temperature shifts

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Minghui Chen
    2. Henrique Von Gersdorff

  • Presynaptic diversity revealed by Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors at the calyx of held synapse

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Brendan Lujan
    2. Andre Dagostin
    3. Henrique Von Gersdorff

  • Allegro giusto

    Journal of Physiology
    1. Andre Dagostin
    2. Christopher Kushmerick
    3. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • Clustered Ca2+ Channels Are Blocked by Synaptic Vesicle Proton Release at Mammalian Auditory Ribbon Synapses

    Cell Reports
    1. Philippe F.Y. Vincent
    2. Soyoun Cho
    3. Margot Tertrais
    4. Yohan Bouleau
    5. Henrique von Gersdorff
    6. Didier Dulon

  • Ca2+-permeable AMPARs mediate glutamatergic transmission and excitotoxic damage at the hair cell ribbon synapse

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Joy Y. Sebe
    2. Soyoun Cho
    3. Lavinia Sheets
    4. Mark A. Rutherford
    5. Henrique von Gersdorff
    6. David W. Raible

  • Distinct actions of voltage-activated Ca2+ channel block on spontaneous release at excitatory and inhibitory central synapses

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Timur Tsintsadze
    2. Courtney L. Williams
    3. Dennis J. Weingarten
    4. Henrique von Gersdorff
    5. Stephen M. Smith

  • The coupling between Ca2+ channels and the exocytotic Ca2+ sensor at hair cell ribbon synapses varies tonotopically along the mature cochlea

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Stuart L. Johnson
    2. Jennifer Olt
    3. Soyoun Cho
    4. Henrique von Gersdorff
    5. Walter Marcotti

  • Tuning auditory synapses for resilience, reliability and precision

    Journal of Physiology
    1. Brendan Lujan
    2. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • Fast, Temperature-Sensitive and Clathrin-Independent Endocytosis at Central Synapses

    Neuron
    1. Igor Delvendahl
    2. Nicholas P. Vyleta
    3. Henrique von Gersdorff
    4. Stefan Hallermann

  • Postsynaptic Plasticity Triggered by Ca2+-Permeable AMPA Receptor Activation in Retinal Amacrine Cells

    Neuron
    1. Mean Hwan Kim
    2. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • Synaptic Vesicle Exocytosis at the Dendritic Lobules of an Inhibitory Interneuron in the Mammalian Retina

    Neuron
    1. Veeramuthu Balakrishnan
    2. Theresa Puthussery
    3. Mean Hwan Kim
    4. W. Rowland Taylor
    5. Henrique Von Gersdorff

  • Phase-locking precision is enhanced by multiquantal release at an auditory hair cell ribbon synapse

    Neuron
    1. Geng Lin Li
    2. Soyoun Cho
    3. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • Proton-mediated block of Ca2+ channels during multivesicular release regulates short-term plasticity at an auditory hair cell synapse

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Soyoun Cho
    2. Henrique von Gersdorff

  • Specialized postsynaptic morphology enhances neurotransmitter dilution and high-frequency signaling at an auditory synapse

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Cole W. Graydon
    2. Soyoun Cho
    3. Jeffrey S. Diamond
    4. Bechara Kachar
    5. Henrique von Gersdorff
    6. William N. Grimes