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EDGE SEMINAR QB/GEDD Friday, March 22 at 11:30am Room 1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg. Refreshments at 11:15 Ethan Perlstein Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics Princeton University Do Yeast Get Depressed? My research interests are in evolutionary pharmacology, the study of complex drugs using simple genetic model organisms. For 5 years at Princeton, my lab used cellular drug responses of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model for psychopharmacology. A recurring theme of our work is that cell membranes are a novel drug target of basic and hydrophobic psychoactive drugs, such as antidepressants, antipsychotics and antihistamines. Using a radioactive version of the antidepressant Zoloft, we identified several evolutionarily conserved cellular pathways, including autophagy, that modify drug accumulation both in yeast cells and a rat neuronal cell line (PC12). These pathways regulate the shape and function of specific cell membranes that comprise acidic organelles of the secretory and endocytic pathways, as revealed by quantitative, bilayer-resolution electron microscopy. The accumulation of cationic amphipathic drugs in cell membranes has a cytoprotective effect in yeast mutants with altered clathrin function, a striking observation that has implications for the unexplained neurogenic effects of antidepressants in people. Finally, last Fall I and my team of collaborators crowdfunded over $25,000 for a project to examine the distribution of radioactive amphetamines in the mouse brain. In the spirit of Open Science, we are sharing data in real-time and proactively engaging with the public. Helen Geiger, Administrative Assistant Quantitative Biology Graduate Program and Gene Expression in Development and Disease Biochemistry 603 Wilson Road, Room 212 East Lansing, MI 48824 Email: [log in to unmask] Phone: 517-432-9895 QB Website: http://www.qbi.msu.edu/ GEDD Website: http://www.gedd.msu.edu/