Wolfgang Mueller (Müller), M.D., Ph.D.
Director of Research
University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Dept. of Neurosurgery
wmueller@salud.unm.edu

Dr. Mueller has received an MD from Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany, a physics degree in the area of theoretical solid state quantum mechanics under the guidance of Alfred Hüller and an MDPhD in the area of thyroidal diagnosis by determination of free thyroxin in comparison to total thyroxin under the guidance of J. Mahlstedt, both from Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen, Germany. He joined the Neurophysiology Laboratories of Hans-Dieter Lux and Ulrich Misgeld at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry in Munich and, later, of John Connor at Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Hoffmann-La Roche, Nutley, NJ, where he carried out some pioneering studies on central muscarinic transmission, synaptic plasticity and intracellular Ca²⁺-signaling in dendritic spines. At Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, he started the High Resolution Imaging Laboratory and carried out some pioneering work on presynaptic vesicle release in intact brain tissue. He moved to UNM in 2005 as Director of Research in the Department of Neurosurgery and PI within the COBRE grant.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I'm interested in the long term plasticity of synaptic transmission with respect to presynaptic and postsynaptic mechanisms and activity dynamics in neuronal networks in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus. This area of study has strong bearing on biological information processing and storage as well as pathological conditions in Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy. Patch clamp and sharp electrode recordings in brain slices allow us to characterize membrane currents and synaptic properties of mature neurons and synapses, and their modulation and long-term modification by neurotransmitters and activity patterns. Using 2-Photon laser scan fluorescence microscopy we can directly image intracellular Ca²⁺-changes that trigger short- and long-term plasticity, as well as presynaptic vesicle release and recycling for several pools of transmitter vesicles. In brain tissues from a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy we are using these methods to characterize plastic changes that lead to epilepsy and occur during a silent period after a 1 hour status epilepticus induced by pilocarpine.

LAB MEMBERS

• Denis Bragin PhD
• Mitsuhiro Morita PhD
• Jing Li Zhang MD

FORMER LAB MEMBERS

• Scott Adams, PhD
• Philippe Alix PhD
• Plamena Angelova MA
• Katrin Bittner PhD
• Alexei Egorov PhD
• Silke Erdmann, PhD
• Ivan Raginov MD
• Michael Richter MA
• Violeta Visan PhD
• Andriy Volynets MA
• Jochen Winterer MDPhD

Education and PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

• Diploma Physics. University of Erlangen, Germany (1977-1981).
• M.D Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany (1977-1983);
• M.D.Ph.D. University of Erlangen (1980-83).
• Postdoctoral Training Univ. Freiburg, Germany, Dept. Physiology (1983-1985)
• Research Scientist Max-Planck-Institute Munich, Neurophysiology (1985-1990)
• Visiting Scientist, Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Nutley, NJ (1990-1992)
• Research Scientist,  Max-Planck-Institute Goettingen, and Univ. of Erlangen (1992-1994)
• Assistant Professor, Humboldt University Berlin (1994-2002)
• Associate Professor, Humboldt University Berlin (2002-2005)

Honors

• Fellowship of the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
• USA-Research-Stipend of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Bonn, Germany 1989
• Helmholtz Stipend and Grant of the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie, 1991
• Heisenberg-Stipend of the DFG, Bonn, 1994
• Heisenberg-Stipend-II of the DFG, Bonn, 1997

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Zhang, X.L., Zhou, Z., Winterer, J., Müller, W., and Stanton P.K. 2006 NMDA-dependent, but not group I mGluR-dependent, LTD at Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses is associated with longterm reduction of release from the rapidly recycling presynaptic vesicle pool.
J. Neurosci. 26: 10270 –10280.

Tyler, W.J., Zhang, X.L., Winterer, J., Müller, W., Stanton P.K., and Pozzo-Miller, L. 2006 BDNF Increases Release Probability and the Size of the Readily Releasable Pool in Hippocampal Excitatory Synapses. J Physiol, 574: 787-803.

Angelova, P. and Müller, W. 2006. Oxidative Modulation of the transient potassium current I_A by intracellular arachidonic acid in rat CA1 pyramidal neurons.  Eur J Neurosci, 23: 2375-84.

Winterer, J., Stanton P.K., and Müller W. 2006 Direct Monitoring of Vesicular Release and Uptake in Brain  Slices by multiphoton excitation of FM1-43. BioTechniques 40:343-350.

Stanton P.K., Winterer, J., Zhang X.L., and Müller W. 2005 Imaging LTP of presynaptic release of FM1-43 from the rapidly recycling vesicle pool of Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses in rat hippocampal slices. Eur J Neurosci 22:2451-61.

Müller, A. Kukley, M. Uebachs, P. Stausberg, M. Podlogar, H.Beck, Müller W., Dietrich, D. 2005 Endogenous Ca2+ buffer concentration and Ca2+ microdomains in hippocampal neurons.
J. Neurosci. 25: 558-565.

Axmacher, N., Winterer, J., Stanton, P.K., Draguhn, A., and Müller W. 2004 Two-photon imaging of spontaneous vesicular release in acute brain slices and its modulation by presynaptic GABAA receptors, NeuroImage  22: 1014-1021.

Adams S.V., Winterer J., and Müller W. 2004. Muscarinic signaling is required for spike-pairing induction of long-term potentiation at rat Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses, Hippocampus 14:413-6.

Stanton P.K., Winterer, J., Bailey, C.P., Kyrozis, A., Raginov, I., Laube, G., Veh, R.W., Nguyen C.Q., and Müller W. 2003. Long-term depression of presynaptic release from the readily-releasable vesicle pool induced by NMDA receptor-dependent retrograde NO, J. Neurosci. 23:5936-5944.

Alix P., Winterer, J., and Müller W. 2003. New illumination technique for IR-video guided patch-clamp recording from neurons in slice cultures on biomembrane, J. Neurosci. Meth. 128:79-84.

Egorov, A.E., Heinemann, U., Müller W., 2003.  Muscarinic excitation of entorhinal cortex layer V pyramidal neurons by calcium-independent activation of a nonspecific cation conductance, Eur. J. Neurosci, 18:3343-51.

Visan V., Heinemann U. & Müller W. (2002) Calcium currents in rat entorhinal cortex layer II stellate and layer III pyramidal neurons in acute brain slice, Neurosci. Lett., 327: 153–156.

Müller W. and Bittner, K., 2002.  Differential oxidative modulation of voltage dependent K-currents by arachidonic acid and hydrogen peroxide. J. Neurophysiol.  87: 2990–2995.

Egorov, A.E., Heinemann, U., Müller W., 2002. Differential excitability and voltage-dependent Ca2+ signalling in two types of medial entorhinal cortex layer V neurons. Eur. J. Neurosci. 16: 1305-1312.

Stanton P.K., Heinemann U. and Müller W. 2001. FM1-43 Imaging reveals cyclic GMP-dependent Long-Term Depression of presynaptic transmitter release, J. Neurosci., 21: RC167:1-6.

Xulun Zhang, X., Baader, S.L., Bian F., Müller W. and Oberdick, J.  2001.  High level Purkinje cell specific expression of green fluorescent protein in transgenic mice, Histochem Cell Biol 115: 455–464.

Ohm T.G., Hamker U., Cedazo-Minguez A., Röckl W., Scharnagl H., März 
      W., Cowburn R., Müller W., and Meske, V. 2001. Apolipoprotein E and
      ßA4-amyloid: signals and effects. Biochem.Soc.Symp., 67: 121-129