The focus of my research is to understand how the neurotransmitter dopamine modulates the activities of neurons. Dopamine signaling is involved in learning and memory and abnormal dopamine signaling has been implicated in a variety of mental disorders including schizophrenia, drug addiction, and Parkinson’s disease. Despite the importance of understanding how dopamine affects brain function, we do not have a clear understanding of the signaling mechanisms through which dopamine acts. This lack of understanding is in large part due to the inability to identify the molecular components involved in dopamine signaling. Biochemical approaches to identify such components are hampered by the cellular heterogeneity of the brain, by the difficulty in preparing large, pure populations of primary neurons and by the lack of cell lines that can be cultured and that accurately reflect the cellular environment present in neurons.
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D1 Dopamine Receptor Signaling Is Modulated by the R7 RGS Protein EAT-16 and the R7 Binding Protein RSBP-1 in Caenoerhabditis elegans Motor Neurons (with K. A. Wani, M. Catanese, R. Normantowicz, M Herd, and K. N. Maher), PLoS ONE (2012)
Dopamine signaling modulates voluntary movement and reward-driven behaviors by acting through G protein-coupled receptors in...
Coexpressed D1- and D2-like dopamine receptors antagonistically modulate acetylcholine release in Caenorhabditis elegans. (with Andrew T. Allen, Kathryn N. Maher, Khursheed A. Wani, and Katherine E. Betts), Genetics (2011)
Dopamine acts through two classes of G protein-coupled receptor (D1-like and D2-like) to modulate neuron...
A specific subset of transient receptor potential vanilloid-type channel subunits in Caenorhabditis elegans endocrine cells function as mixed heteromers to promote neurotransmitter release (with Amy Bany and Michael R. Koelle), Genetics (2007)
Transient receptor potential (TRP) channel subunits form homotetramers that function in sensory transduction. Heteromeric channels...