Molecular basis of glutamatergic synapes

The work of our laboratory is dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate the flow of neurotransmitters (mainly glutamate and glycine) through neurotransmitter transporters, and how deregulation of these transporters, or their associated regulatory proteins, can contribute to neurological or psychiatric disorders (ischemic lesions in the brain, schizophrenia). Glutamate and glycine neurotransporters control the levels of these neurotransmitters in glutamatergic synapses thereby regulating the activity of NMDA receptors. While overstimulation of these receptors leads to neurotoxicity and neurodegenerative processes, their hypofunction has been associated with schizophrenia. Our work has focused on better understanding of the mechanisms of biogenesis: traffic through the secretory pathway and their asymmetric distribution in subdomains of the membrane, their anchoring to scaffold proteins and eventually their endocytosis, either for degradation or recycling. Also we investigate the regulation by microRNAs of the fluxes of neurotransmitters in brain.