Scholars@Duke
Thomas Mark Newpher

Thomas Mark Newpher

Associate Professor of the Practice of Psychology and Neuroscience
Psychology & Neuroscience
thomas.newpher@duke.edu
308 Research Drive, LSRC B030, Box 91003, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

Comparing Student Performance in Emergency Remote and Face-to-Face Collaborative Learning Courses.

Journal Article Journal of undergraduate neuroscience education : JUNE : a publication of FUN, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience · January 2023 The start of the COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented shift from face-to-face (F2F) instruction to emergency remote teaching (ERT) for over one billion learners worldwide. Studies from K-12 and higher education have begun to address the impact of ERT ... Full text Cite

Class Size and Student Performance in a Team-Based Learning Course.

Journal Article J Undergrad Neurosci Educ · 2021 High-enrollment university courses can be associated with decreased student learning and course satisfaction. In these large classes, students report feelings of isolation, reduced faculty interaction, and less motivation. Here we address whether team-base ... Open Access Link to item Cite

Comparing Active Learning to Team-Based Learning in Undergraduate Neuroscience.

Journal Article J Undergrad Neurosci Educ · 2020 Team-based learning (TBL) is a special form of collaborative learning that involves the use of permanent working teams throughout the semester. In this highly structured and interactive teaching method, students perform preparatory activities outside of cl ... Open Access Link to item Cite

Regulation of spine structural plasticity by Arc/Arg3.1.

Journal Article Semin Cell Dev Biol · May 2018 Dendritic spines are actin-rich, postsynaptic protrusions that contact presynaptic terminals to form excitatory chemical synapses. These synaptic contacts are widely believed to be the sites of memory formation and information storage, and changes in spine ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Role of Scd5, a protein phosphatase-1 targeting protein, in phosphoregulation of Sla1 during endocytosis.

Journal Article Journal of cell science · October 2012 Phosphorylation regulates assembly and disassembly of proteins during endocytosis. In yeast, Prk1 and Ark1 phosphorylate factors after vesicle internalization leading to coat disassembly. Scd5, a protein phosphatase-1 (PP1)-targeting subunit, is proposed t ... Full text Open Access Cite

Calmodulin dissociation regulates Myo5 recruitment and function at endocytic sites.

Journal Article The EMBO journal · September 2010 Myosins-I are conserved proteins that bear an N-terminal motor head followed by a Tail Homology 1 (TH1) lipid-binding domain. Some myosins-I have an additional C-terminal extension (C(ext)) that promotes Arp2/3 complex-dependent actin polymerization. The h ... Full text Open Access Cite

Parallel on-axis holographic phase microscopy of biological cells and unicellular microorganism dynamics.

Journal Article Applied optics · May 2010 We apply a wide-field quantitative phase microscopy technique based on parallel two-step phase-shifting on-axis interferometry to visualize live biological cells and microorganism dynamics. The parallel on-axis holographic approach is more efficient with c ... Full text Open Access Cite

Spine microdomains for postsynaptic signaling and plasticity.

Journal Article Trends in cell biology · May 2009 Changes in the molecular composition and signaling properties of excitatory glutamatergic synapses onto dendritic spines mediate learning-related plasticity in the mammalian brain. This molecular adaptation serves as the most celebrated cell biological mod ... Full text Open Access Cite

Glutamate receptor dynamics in dendritic microdomains.

Journal Article Neuron · May 2008 Among diverse factors regulating excitatory synaptic transmission, the abundance of postsynaptic glutamate receptors figures prominently in molecular memory and learning-related synaptic plasticity. To allow for both long-term maintenance of synaptic trans ... Full text Open Access Cite

Postsynaptic positioning of endocytic zones and AMPA receptor cycling by physical coupling of dynamin-3 to Homer.

Journal Article Neuron · September 2007 Endocytosis of AMPA receptors and other postsynaptic cargo occurs at endocytic zones (EZs), stably positioned sites of clathrin adjacent to the postsynaptic density (PSD). The tight localization of postsynaptic endocytosis is thought to control spine compo ... Full text Open Access Cite

Novel function of clathrin light chain in promoting endocytic vesicle formation.

Journal Article Molecular biology of the cell · October 2006 Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is a major pathway for uptake of lipid and protein cargo at the plasma membrane. The lattices of clathrin-coated pits and vesicles are comprised of triskelions, each consisting of three oligomerized heavy chains (HC) bound by ... Full text Open Access Cite

Clathrin is important for normal actin dynamics and progression of Sla2p-containing patches during endocytosis in yeast.

Journal Article Traffic (Copenhagen, Denmark) · May 2006 Clathrin is a major vesicle coat protein involved in receptor-mediated endocytosis. In yeast and higher eukaryotes, clathrin is recruited to the plasma membrane during the early stage of endocytosis along with clathrin-associated adaptors. As coated pits u ... Full text Open Access Cite

In vivo dynamics of clathrin and its adaptor-dependent recruitment to the actin-based endocytic machinery in yeast.

Journal Article Developmental cell · July 2005 Clathrin-mediated transport is a major pathway for endocytosis. However, in yeast, where cortical actin patches are essential for endocytosis, plasma membrane-associated clathrin has never been observed. Using live cell imaging, we demonstrate cortical cla ... Full text Open Access Cite

Scd5p and clathrin function are important for cortical actin organization, endocytosis, and localization of sla2p in yeast.

Journal Article Mol Biol Cell · August 2002 SCD5 was identified as a multicopy suppressor of clathrin HC-deficient yeast. SCD5 is essential, but an scd5-Delta338 mutant, expressing Scd5p with a C-terminal truncation of 338 amino acids, is temperature sensitive for growth. Further studies here demons ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite