Santa Clara University

Phone: 408-554-4498

Fax: 408-554-2710

Email:
DTauck@scu.edu

Room number: Alumni Science 363

David L. Tauck

Associate Professor

Educational Background

A.B. 1977 Middlebury College, Biology, Phi Beta Kappa
M.A. 2003 Middlebury College, Spanish
Ph.D. 1983 Duke University, Physiology
Postdoctoral Fellowships
Stanford University 1983-1985, Anesthesia
Harvard University 1985-1987, Neuroscience

Teaching

Bio 7 Heart & Body
Bio 17 Biology of Language
Bio 21 Physiology

Bio 122 Neurobiology
Bio 124 Human Physiology

Research

My research interests have focused on synaptic plasticity, the mechanisms by which the strength of connections between neurons is modulated. Beginning with a study of the synaptic rearrangements in the hippocampus elicited by seizures, I then investigated the effects of general anesthetics on several forms of plasticity in that same part of the brain. After learning how to measure the effects of neurotransmitters on individual neurons in culture, I looked at how some of these same chemicals affect the long-term potentiation of synaptic transmission at a particular synapse in the hippocampus. Recently I have begun to study plasticity in neural circuits of an invertebrate.

Publications

Tauck, D.L. (2006) Using a classic paper by Gottschalk and Mylle to teach the countercurrent model of urinary concentration. Advan. Physiol. Edu. 30: 63-66.

Birmingham, J.T., D.M. Graham* and D.L. Tauck. (2004) Lymnaea stagnalis and the development of neuroelectronic technologies. Journal of Neuroscience Research:76 (3):277-281.

Birmingham, J.T. and D.L. Tauck. (2003) Neuromodulation in invertebrate sensory systems: from biophysics to behavior. Journal of Experimental Biology 206:3541-3546.

Sanchez, R.M., C. Wang, G. Gardner, L. Orlando, D.L. Tauck, P.A. Rosenberg, E. Aisenman, and F.E. Jensen. (2000) Novel Role for the NMDA Receptor Redox Modulatory Site in the Pathophysiology of Seizures. Journal of Neuroscience 20(6):2409-2417.

Wong, S.M.E., D.L. Tauck, J.F. Fong and J.J. Kendig. (1998) Glutamate receptor-mediated hyperexcitability following ethanol exposure in isolated neonatal rat spinal cord. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 285(1):201-207.

Wong, S.M.E., J.F. Fong, D.L. Tauck and J.J. Kendig. (1997) Ethanol as a general anesthetic: actions in spinal cord. European Journal of Pharmacology 329:121-127.

Tauck, D.L. (1994) Review of The Nervous System by Lloyd D. Partridge and L. Donald Partridge. The Quarterly Review of Biology 69(3):424.

Tauck, D.L. (1992) Teaching action potentials with computer simulations instead of neurons. Humane Innovations and Alternatives 6:395-397.

Tauck, D.L. (1992) Redox modulation of NMDA receptor-mediated synaptic activity in the hippocampus. NeuroReport 3(9):781-784.

Tauck D.L. and G.A. Ashbeck (1990) Glycine synergistically potentiates the enhancement of LTP induced by a sulfhydryl reducing agent. Brain Research 519:129-132.

MacIver, M.B., D.L. Tauck and J.J. Kendig (1989) General anaesthetic modification of synaptic facilitation and long-term potentiation in hippocampus. British Journal of Anaesthesia 62:301-310.

Lipton, S.A., M.P. Frosch, M.D. Phillips, D.L. Tauck, and E. Aizenman (1988) Nicotinic antagonists enhance process outgrowth by rat retinal ganglion cells in culture. Science 239:1293-1296.

Tauck, D.L., M.P. Frosch and S.A. Lipton (1988) Characterization of GABA- and glycine-induced currents of solitary rodent retinal ganglion cells in culture. Neuroscience 27(1):193-204.

Lipton, S.A. and D.L. Tauck (1987) Voltage-dependent conductances of solitary ganglion cells dissociated from the rat retina. Journal of Physiology 385:361-391.

Tauck, D.L. and J.V. Nadler (1985) Evidence of functional mossy fiber sprouting in hippocampal formation of kainic acid-treated rats. Journal of Neuroscience 5(4):1016-1022.

Nadler, J.V., D.L. Tauck, D.A. Evenson and J.N. Davis (1983) Synaptic rearrangements in the kainic acid model of Ammon's horn sclerosis. IN: Excitotoxins, Wenner-Gren Center International Symposium 39 (Fuxe, K., P.J. Roberts and R. Schwartz, eds.) MacMillan Press, Houndmills, p. 256-270.

*undergraduate