Research Projects

Dopamine signaling plays several critical roles in reward, learning, memory, and arousal with atypical dopamine signaling linked to neuropsychiatric disorders like addiction, depression, Schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. Molecular diagnosis and effective treatments for these neurological disorders has been limited by an unclear picture of the driving mechanisms. The lab's long-term goals are to investigate mechanisms of dopamine signaling that participate in the progression of neurological disorders. To do this, we will investigate questions such as How does dysregulated dopamine breakdown and signaling contribute to psychiatric disorders and neurodegeneration? What mechanisms are in place to maintain dopamine homeostasis? How do neurons and glial cells communicate to regulate dopamine recycling and breakdown? 

But why use fruit flies? The biosynthetic enzymes, transport mechanisms, and signaling pathways of the dopaminergic system are highly conserved between flies and humans making it a powerful system to study dopaminergic pathways that are relevant to human disorders in vivo. The plethora of genetic, biochemical, imaging tools, and behavioral assays along with large databases of sequencing and expression data establish the fruit fly as invaluable system for studying the genetic, molecular, and functional makeup of the nervous system! 

Below you will find a list of specific projects that we have ongoing at Keck! If you have any further questions please email swatson@kecksci.claremont.edu or get in touch with one of our lab members.