General Information

Mission

The scientific mission of NeuroTrans is to develop solid relationships between molecular and systemic effects with the objective to understanding NSS (mal)function from the underlying molecular principles. To achieve this goal, NeuroTrans has defined the following scientific objectives:

1. To characterize ligand bound complexes and derive structural and mechanistic insights by determining GABA transporter structures.
2. To characterize the electrogenic events associated with transport (binding, translocation, release). Novel technologies for electrophysiological recordings will be developed to significantly improve instrument sensitivity and throughput in vesicular and cellular recordings.
3. To obtain dynamic, kinetic, thermodynamic, structural, and mechanics insight into the processes of substrate binding and transport with improved temporal and spatial resolution. Novel technologies will be developed for efficient measurements of thermodynamic and kinetics parameters in vesicles and cells.
4. To identify the mode of action of NPS. The development of new microfluidic devices for cell based measurements and its integration with the analytic technologies will boost throughput by orders of magnitude.
5. To assess the molecular determinants of novel disease causing mutations associated with neuropsychiatric disease discovered in large population screens, including mutations eliciting discrete changes in transporter function or leading to dysregulation of neurotransmitter homeostasis.
6. The state-of-the art infrastructure available or developed within the NeuroTrans Network will support archiving these ambitious research objectives.