Uel Jackson McMahan

Administrative Appointments

• Member, Appointments and Promotions (A&P) Committee, School of Medicine (2005 - 2008)
• Member, Administrative Panel for Laboratory Animal Care (APLAC) (1999 - 2005)
• Chairman, Committee on Graduate Studies (1989 - 1990)
• Chairman, Department of Neurobiology (1987 - 1992)
• Director, Neurosciences Program (1986 - 1991)

Honors and Awards

• Research Career Development Award, NIH (1973-1977)
• Jacob Javits Neurosciences Investigator Award, NIH (1984-1991)
• Jacob Javits Neurosciences Investigator Award, NIH (1991-1998)
• Alumni Achievement Award, Westminster College, Fulton, MO (1996)
• Prix (Plasticite Neuronale): shared with G. Fischbach (Harvard) and H.Betz (MPI, Frankfurt), Fondation IPSEN/Fondation de France (1998)

Professional Education

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Biophysics
• Neurosciences

Community & International Work

• Visiting Lecture Team Program, Economically underdeveloped nations 

Web Site Links

• Uel Jackson McMahan Laboratory

Research Interests

We use three-dimensional reconstructions of tissue sections generated by electron microscope tomography to study the organization and behavior of macromolecules at the nervous system’s synapses. The information we obtain provides insights unobtainable in any other way about the molecular mechanisms involved in synaptic impulse transmission and the sequence of steps in synapse formation. To augment our studies we are developing methods for localizing known proteins to specific macromolecules observed by tomography and for the quantitative analysis of tomographic data, technologies that can be applied to the investigation of macromolecules in any tissue.

Publications

• Methods for generation high-resolution structural models from electron microscope tomography data. D.B. Ress, M.L. Harlow, R.M. Marshall, U.J. McMahan. Structure. 2004; 12 (10): 1763-1774
• The architecture of active zone material at the frog's neuromuscular junction. Harlow ML, Ress D, Stoschek A, Marshall RM, McMahan UJ. Nature. 2001; 409 (6819): 479-84
• Automatic acquisition of fiducial markers and alignment of images in tilt series for electron tomography. Ress D, Harlow ML, Schwarz M, Marshall RM, McMahan UJ. J Electron Microsc (Tokyo). 1999; 48 (3): 277-87
• Dissection of active zones at the neuromuscular junction by EM tomography. Harlow M, Ress D, Koster A, Marshall RM, Schwarz M, McMahan UJ. J Physiol Paris. 1998; 92 (2): 75-8
• Neuregulins and erbB receptors at neuromuscular junctions and at agrin-induced postsynaptic-like apparatus in skeletal muscle. Rimer M, Cohen I, Lømo T, Burden SJ, McMahan UJ. Mol Cell Neurosci. 1998; 12 (1-2): 1-15