Building Biosensors for Neuropsychopharmacology
Speaker
Julian GersonLocation
SAGE Seminar Room, Psychology 1312Info
Our understanding of the brain’s beautiful and complex machinery is largely driven by our ability to measure the chemical and electrical signals that govern its convoluted circuitry. As such, our knowledge is only as good as the tools we have at our disposal. The study of neurochemistry and neuropharmacology research has largely been driven by the use of microdialysis and electrochemical methods to measure targets of interest in the brain. While these techniques are powerful and have contributed immensely to our conceptualization of brain activity, they are not without their limitations. Briefly, microdialysis suffers from poor temporal resolution and lacks the potential for real-time data delivery, while previous electrochemical methods suffer from debatable specificity and limited generalizability for the detection of many critical targets. In response to these limitations, I have applied electrochemical aptamer-based (E-AB) sensors to the field of in-brain molecular sensing. The modular E-AB platform does not rely on the reactivity of its intended target, is generalizable to the detection of a wide range of analytes and has been shown to support real-time detection of small molecules directly in the living body. By modifying the existing E-AB platform, which has demonstrated success for peripheral measurements in blood, I have developed a novel E-AB sensor platform for making in-brain measurements of small molecules. In-brain E-AB sensing opens a path towards measuring a wide range of targets in the brain. To showcase this, I have applied this platform to model drug transport (using simultaneous measurements in blood and CSF), as well as study neuropsychopharmacology (using simultaneous measurements of a psychoactive drug and on-going behavior). Together these studies lay the foundation for a powerful new tool with which to study neurochemistry and neuropharmacology.
