Principal Investigator: Dennis Luke Murphy

Research Interests

The Laboratory of Clinical Science (LCS) explores the neurobiology of neuropsychiatric disorders using molecular, neurochemical and genetic techniques. Its present focus links studies of transgenic mice with clinical brain disorders using gene-environment interaction models. The serotonin, dopamine and glutamate neurotransmitter systems are among key molecules and these transporters are the primary targets of LCS research. The development and study of the knockout mice in the LCS provides new living tools to discover what systems do in the brain.  Drugs that target these transporters include molecules used as SERT and serotonin receptors are the target molecules for the largest numbers of neuropsychiatric drugs used in the world. The 30 plus neurochemical, behavioral and other phenotypic changes discovered in the serotonin knockout mouse are helping to guide the LCS and other laboratories in investigations of the more than 10 variants recently discovered in the human SERT gene.  Mice lacking the dopamine transporter and mice lacking or over-expressing the neuronal glutamate transporter are also under intensive study.