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frasermoss
Member since: Feb 22, 2005
From: California, United States
Status: Neuroscience, Electrophysiology and Imaging Moderator
My points: 859    what's this
Name: Fraser Moss
 


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About My Research

My research career has always focused on ion channels and neurotransmitter transporters.  The majority of my experience has been gained in an academic environment but I have spent time on two successful secondments to the pharmaceutical industry.

 

My present research has two concurrent projects.  The first project focuses on understanding the density, intracellular processing, PDZ interactions, trafficking, and oligomerization of the GABA transporter mGAT1, by expressing fluorescent protein fusions in vitro.  Understanding such processes in GAT1 and other related proteins is important for our understanding of their roles in diseases such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and depression.  Through the application of a novel Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) technique which I have developed, we are now able to identify the oligomerization state of ion channels and transporters in specific subcellular compartments and relate the FRET signature to function.  We can now study the changes in oligomerization state/stoichiometry of different receptors and transporters in response to ligands, and how this correlates with their function and trafficking.  This is particularly important for the understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which some diseases take effect and elucidating the molecular events that in some addictions.

 

The second project is concerned with developing techniques to incorporate unnatural amino acids (UAAs) into ion channels expressed in mammalian cells.  UAAs allow researchers to probe intermolecular interactions with a sensitivity unachievable by conventional mutagenesis.  I am applying these techniques to incorporate UAAs at key positions in the pore of the hERG K+ channel when expressed in mammalian cells.  The goal is to improve drug safety by elucidating the subtle yet critically important nature of the binding interactions that determine how and why many non-cardiovascular clinical drugs bind to hERG and cause acquired LQT syndrome.

My Affiliations:

California Institute of Technology

Off the bench I enjoy:

Football/Soccer

World History

Geneology

Tennis

Family

Ornithology