Laboratory Profile
Principal Investigator:
Shimon Schuldiner
Molecular Mechanism of Transport of Neurotransmitters and Antibiotics
Location: Silberman Wing 1, 3rd. floor Room 1-339
Communication:



E.Mail: shimon.schuldiner@huji.ac.il
Phone: 6585992
Web: http://biolchem.huji.ac.il/shimons/
Brief Description of Research:
Neurotransmitters are actively stored in synaptic
vesicles by proteins such as VMAT. VMAT is also capable of transporting toxic
compounds into subcellular compartments, conferring resistance against their
harmful effect. VMAT displays weak but distinct amino acid sequence similarity with
bacterial multidrug transporters (MDTs) that confer resistance against antibiotics.
Bacterial
MDTs studied in our laboratory provide insights into molecular
mechanisms and evolution pathways. (for more details, please see website).
Techniques used include: molecular biology (site directed mutagenesis, directed
evolution and more); microbiology (bacteria and yeast) for the identification of
mutants and phenotype measurements; biochemistry, for purification and
characterization of membrane protein; tissue culture, for evaluation of activity of
neurotransmitter transporters; structural biology, for evaluation of predicted
structure
Proposed Research Projects:


Topic 1: Evolution of specificity and function of multidrug transporters. Studies using
directed evolution.
Topic 2: Mechanism of action of neurotransmitter transporters: identification of
conformational changes essential for transport activity.