Understanding how complex information is reliably transmitted with millisecond precision and high fidelity from one nerve cell to another and how alterations in information processing lead to neurological disorders
Specialized Terms: Synaptic Transmission, Synaptic Regulation, Membrane Fusion, Neurological Disorders
The controlled release of neurotransmitters is central to information processing in the nervous system and is altered in many psychiatric and neurological disorders as is clear from well-established clinical benefits achieved by drugs that modulate neurotransmitter biochemistry and/or availability. So, we also aim to uncover the molecular and mechanistic basis for neurological disorders.
Our strategy is based on the systematic quantitative analysis of mutations both novel structure-based designer mutants as well as ‘experiments of nature’ - mutations associated with neurological disorders. We employ multidisciplinary biochemical, biophysical, and structural methods (with a specific focus on systematic biochemical reconstitution strategies) along with electrophysiology and high-resolution imaging in cultured neurons (in collaboration with Prof. Kirill Volynski, UCL Queen Square Institue of Neurology)
Synaptic Transmission; Neurology; Neurosciences