James Angstadt, Professor
Neurobiology, neural modulation of behavior
My research program seeks to identify and characterize the types of ion channel proteins present in identified neurons of the medicinal leech. Ion channels are important because they determine the electrical properties of a neuron, which in turn affect how the neuron interacts with other cells and ultimately how it impacts animal behavior. This is just as relevant to the human brain as it is to the leech nervous system.
We chose the leech as our experimental organism because it has a relatively small number of large and easily accessible neurons. Traditionally, we have used physiological recordings and pharmacological agents to identify ion channels. Recently, however, we have begun to employ the tools of molecular biology, specifically a technique called in situ hybridization (ISH), to address this question. ISH involves the design of highly specific probes to label the messenger RNA molecules that a neuron may express and translate into the ion channel protein.