Neuroseminar: Felix Mayer

Assistant professor, Department of Neuroscience, UCPH 

Title: Leveraging novel fluorescent sensors to decipher the effects of psychostimulants on pre- and postsynaptic compartments in vivo.

Abstract: Dopamine serves as a crucial neuromodulator, implicated in the regulation of mood, learning, attention and locomotion. Longstanding evidence has established a causal link between disturbed dopamine homeostasis and neuropsychiatric disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. Moreover, drugs associated with high abuse liability cause rapid elevations in extracellular dopamine. However, the precise mechanism of action remains incompletely understood, thereby limiting the development of effective treatment strategies. Here, using DAT^IRESCre mice and a novel (unpublished) concept for genetically encoded fluorescent sensors for dopamine, we investigated the impact of acute psychostimulant administration on dopamine-releasing and postsynaptic target sites in freely moving animals. We detected discrete dopamine dynamics and kinetics of psychostimulant-action at pre- and postsynaptic sites. Remarkably, these novel tools allowed us, for the first time, to directly measure the on- and off-rates of various stimulants at their molecular targets.

Please join us prior to the talk for coffee and cookies.