Kira Poskanzer, PhD
Associate Professor
Biochemistry and Biophysics
School of Medicine

Awards

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• Brown University Class of 1873 Award for Academic Excellence in the Biological Sciences
• Charles H. Revson Senior Fellowship in Life Sciences
• Kavli Faculty Service Award
• NSF CAREER Award
• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
• Robert Leet and Clara Guthrie Patterson Trust Fellowship in Brain Circuitry

Education & Training

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• ScB Biology Brown University
• postdoctoral fellowship Neuroscience Columbia University
• PhD Neuroscience UCSF

Websites

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• Biophysics Graduate Program (biophysics.ucsf.edu)
• Center for Integrative Neuroscience (cin.ucsf.edu)
• Biochemistry Department (biochemistry.ucsf.edu)
• Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience (kavliifn.ucsf.edu)
• Poskanzer Lab (kiraposkanzerlab.org)

Grants and Projects

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• Role of DNA double-strand breaks in neural function and homeostasis, NIH, 2020-2025
• Non-Neuronal Sleep/Wake Control in Cortex, NIH, 2020-2025
• A Functional Taxonomy of Cortical Astrocytes, NIH, 2016-2021
• Dissecting Monoaminergic Physiology of Prefrontal Cortical Astrocytes, NIH, 2019-2021

Publications (31)

Top publication keywords:
Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-1Biological ClocksCalciumNeurotransmitter AgentsCell CommunicationEndocytosisVisual CortexSynaptotagmin IOptical ImagingNorepinephrineReceptors, G-Protein-CoupledAstrocytesDopamineNeocortexSynaptic Vesicles

• Network-level encoding of local neurotransmitters in cortical astrocytes.
  Nature 2024 Cahill MK, Collard M, Tse V, Reitman ME, Etchenique R, Kirst C, Poskanzer KE
• Network-level encoding of local neurotransmitters in cortical astrocytes.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Cahill MK, Collard M, Tse V, Reitman ME, Etchenique R, Kirst C, Poskanzer KE
• A Photoactivatable Norepinephrine for Probing Adrenergic Neural Circuits.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Cahill MK, Perez YR, Larpthaveesarp A, Etchenique R, Poskanzer KE
• Norepinephrine links astrocytic activity to regulation of cortical state.
  Nature neuroscience 2023 Reitman ME, Tse V, Mi X, Willoughby DD, Peinado A, Aivazidis A, Myagmar BE, Simpson PC, Bayraktar OA, Yu G, Poskanzer KE
• Dopamine activates astrocytes in prefrontal cortex via α1-adrenergic receptors.
  Cell reports 2022 Pittolo S, Yokoyama S, Willoughby DD, Taylor CR, Reitman ME, Tse V, Wu Z, Etchenique R, Li Y, Poskanzer KE

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• Astrocytic Gi-GPCR activation enhances stimulus-evoked extracellular glutamate
  bioRxiv 2022 Trisha V. Vaidyanathan, Vincent Tse, Esther M. Lim, Kira E. Poskanzer
• Imaging in vivo acetylcholine release in the peripheral nervous system with a fluorescent nanosensor.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2021 Xia J, Yang H, Mu M, Micovic N, Poskanzer KE, Monaghan JR, Clark HA
• Cortical astrocytes independently regulate sleep depth and duration via separate GPCR pathways.
  eLife 2021 Vaidyanathan TV, Collard M, Yokoyama S, Reitman ME, Poskanzer KE
• Reactive astrocyte nomenclature, definitions, and future directions.
  Nature neuroscience 2021 Escartin C, Galea E, Lakatos A, O'Callaghan JP, Petzold GC, Serrano-Pozo A, Steinhäuser C, Volterra A, Carmignoto G, Agarwal A, Allen NJ, Araque A, Barbeito L, Barzilai A, Bergles DE, Bonvento G, Butt…
• Deformable mirror-based axial scanning for two-photon mammalian brain imaging.
  Neurophotonics 2021 Peinado A, Bendek E, Yokoyama S, Poskanzer KE
• Live-imaging of astrocyte morphogenesis and function in zebrafish neural circuits.
  Nature neuroscience 2020 Chen J, Poskanzer KE, Freeman MR, Monk KR
• Accurate quantification of astrocyte and neurotransmitter fluorescence dynamics for single-cell and population-level physiology.
  Nature neuroscience 2019 Wang Y, DelRosso NV, Vaidyanathan TV, Cahill MK, Reitman ME, Pittolo S, Mi X, Yu G, Poskanzer KE
• Reversible silencing of endogenous receptors in intact brain tissue using 2-photon pharmacology.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2019 Pittolo S, Lee H, Lladó A, Tosi S, Bosch M, Bardia L, Gómez-Santacana X, Llebaria A, Soriano E, Colombelli J, Poskanzer KE, Perea G, Gorostiza P
• A roadmap to integrate astrocytes into Systems Neuroscience.
  Glia 2019 Kastanenka KV, Moreno-Bote R, De Pittà M, Perea G, Eraso-Pichot A, Masgrau R, Poskanzer KE, Galea E
• Optical Probes for Neurobiological Sensing and Imaging.
  Accounts of chemical research 2018 Kim EH, Chin G, Rong G, Poskanzer KE, Clark HA
• Dynamism of an Astrocyte In Vivo: Perspectives on Identity and Function.
  Annual review of physiology 2017 Poskanzer KE, Molofsky AV
• A method for estimating intracellular ion concentration using optical nanosensors and ratiometric imaging.
  Scientific reports 2017 Rong G, Kim EH, Poskanzer KE, Clark HA
• A Visible-Light-Sensitive Caged Serotonin.
  ACS chemical neuroscience 2017 Cabrera R, Filevich O, García-Acosta B, Athilingam J, Bender KJ, Poskanzer KE, Etchenique R
• Graphical time warping for joint alignment of multiple curves
  Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) 2016 Wang D, Miller D, Poskanzer K, Tian L, Yu G
• Astrocytes regulate cortical state switching in vivo.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2016 Poskanzer KE, Yuste R
• A structured matrix factorization framework for large scale calcium imaging data analysis
  arXiv 2014 Pnevmatikakis EA, Gao Y, Soudry D, Pfau D, Lacefield C, Poskanzer K, Bruno R, Yuste R, Paninski L
• Two-photon neuronal and astrocytic stimulation with azobenzene-based photoswitches.
  Journal of the American Chemical Society 2014 Izquierdo-Serra M, Gascón-Moya M, Hirtz JJ, Pittolo S, Poskanzer KE, Ferrer È, Alibés R, Busqué F, Yuste R, Hernando J, Gorostiza P
• Astrocytic regulation of cortical UP states.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2011 Poskanzer KE, Yuste R
• Two-photon photostimulation and imaging of neural circuits.
  Nature methods 2007 Nikolenko V, Poskanzer KE, Yuste R
• Discrete residues in the c(2)b domain of synaptotagmin I independently specify endocytic rate and synaptic vesicle size.
  Neuron 2006 Poskanzer KE, Fetter RD, Davis GW
• Flashy science: controlling neural function with light.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2005 Thompson SM, Kao JP, Kramer RH, Poskanzer KE, Silver RA, Digregorio D, Wang SS
• Temporally distinct demands for classic cadherins in synapse formation and maturation.
  Molecular and cellular neurosciences 2004 Bozdagi O, Valcin M, Poskanzer K, Tanaka H, Benson DL
• Mobilization and fusion of a non-recycling pool of synaptic vesicles under conditions of endocytic blockade.
  Neuropharmacology 2004 Poskanzer KE, Davis GW
• Dap160/intersectin scaffolds the periactive zone to achieve high-fidelity endocytosis and normal synaptic growth.
  Neuron 2004 Marie B, Sweeney ST, Poskanzer KE, Roos J, Kelly RB, Davis GW
• Synaptotagmin I is necessary for compensatory synaptic vesicle endocytosis in vivo.
  Nature 2003 Poskanzer KE, Marek KW, Sweeney ST, Davis GW
• N-cadherin regulates ingrowth and laminar targeting of thalamocortical axons.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2003 Poskanzer K, Needleman LA, Bozdagi O, Huntley GW