Lee
Eiden, PhD., Chief
The Section on Molecular Neuroscience studies the molecular mechanisms of
chemically coded ionotropic and metabotropic neurotransmission in the nervous system. The ultimate goals of the project are identifying molecular components of synaptic transmission, and how these components are regulated to allow short-term and long-term information to be encoded within postsynaptic neurons and neuroendocrine cells. We are exploring the general hypothesis that neuropeptide-encoded slow transmission may occupy a special evolutionary niche for nervous system adaptation to paraphysiological stressors, and that by studying neuropeptide function in stress physiology, we might uncover roles (and treatments) relevant to human disease.
Cis-acting
elements within these genes responsible for cell-specific constitutive
expression, and responsiveness to signal transduction pathways triggering
developmentally specific and activity-dependent transcription, are identified
in cell lines and in vivo in transgenic animals using pharmacological,
biochemical and molecular biological techniques.
Bioinformatics Core
The Bioinformatics Core is dedicated to providing computational support to the NIMH IRP research community in the areas of microarray data management and analysis, signal transduction pathway modeling, and data mining.