Present and future of the study of extrasynaptic neurotransmission

Bill Deakin is Professor of Psychiatry and head of the Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit at the University of Manchester.  Bill is interested in the use of brain imaging to identify neural systems and cognitive processes that integrate genetic factors and environmental adversity to give rise to the experiences of mental illness. He has a long-standing interest in the role of brain 5-HT (serotonin) systems in coping with psychosocial adversity. He has developed a strong interest in the neurotransmitter glutamate, which seems to be important in several mental illnesses including schizophrenia. Most of the research projects of the unit involve finding better medical treatments for common mental illnesses based on an understanding of brain mechanisms.

He is the experimental medicine lead of the UK Mental Health Research Network and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has over 200 refereed publications and an H-index of 60.

Elaine Del-Bel obtained her PhD at the University of Sao Paulo in 1988 and worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the Physiological Sciences Department at the University of Manchester (1989-1991). From 1991 to 1995 she worked at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of the University of Sao Paulo-Medical School of Ribeirao Preto as an Associated Researcher. She was appointed as an Assistant Professor of the Department of Physiology at Dental School of Ribeirao Preto, University of São Paulo, in 1995. She became a Physiology Full Professor at the same Department in 2013.  She is most interested in unveiling new mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative and mental disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. Her group was the first to show that nitric oxide (NO) is involved in the control of motor behaviour and in abnormal involuntary movements induced by L-DOPA chronic treatment in animal models of Parkinson’s disease. She has also shown that NO abnormalities could be associated with sensorimotor gating deficits observed in schizophrenic patients.

Along her scientific career Professor Del-Bel has developed strong collaborative research links with several important groups, including those led by Prof. J. Nicholls (SISSA-Italy), Dr R Raisman-Vozari (INSERM-Paris), Professor W Sthuemer (Max Planck Institute-Göttingen), Professor F Kirchoff (University of Hamburg Germany) and Professor H Steinbuch (Maastricht-Netherlands). She has been a member of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) Visiting Lecturer Team since 2002.

Francisco F. De-Miguel is a Professor of Neurosciences at the Institute for Cellular Physiology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He studied Biology at UNAM, followed by a Masters Degree and a PhD in Neurosciences, both at CINVESTAV, also in Mexico. Later he worked as postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of John G. Nicholls FRS in the Biocenter of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He has studied nerve and synapse regeneration, and the cell physiology and biophysics of neurotransmitter release from the cell body and from synapses using individually dissected and cultured neurons of the leech Hirudo. In addition to his research work, he been Director of the Laboratories for Science Education in High Schools since 2004 and is the Coordinator of the Brain and Art Project, also at UNAM, since 2011. In addition to numerous Visiting Professorships (Europe, Latin America and the US), he has directed or participated in more than 100 courses in neurobiology for graduate, undergraduate and high school students and professors in México, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Spain and the United States.

Professor Francisco S Guimarães graduated in Medicine at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1981) and got a PhD in Pharmacology at the University of São Paulo (1987). He did his post-doctoral training (1989-1990) at the Neuroscience and Psychiatric Department, University of Manchester, under the supervision of Professor Bill Deakin. He is currently head of the Pharmacology Department of the Medical School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo. He has experience in basic and clinical Neuropsychopharmacology and his laboratory is aimed at investigating the role of atypical neurotransmitters (nitric oxide and endocannabinoids) in neuropsychiatric disorders. He is also studying he effects of the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol in these disorders.

He is a member of several International Societies and became a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2013.

Gerhard Dahl received his medical degree from the University of the Saarland in Germany in 1974. His thesis work in the Department of Physiology, director Robert Staempfli, dealt with cell communication via gap junction channels in smooth muscle. In 1978 he joined the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Miami, USA. There he developed the paired oocyte expression system for the analysis of gap junction forming proteins, the vertebrate connexins and the invertebrate innexins. When pannexins were discovered, Dahl was the first to question the suspected gap junction function of pannexins. Instead his group showed that pannexin1 formed a nonjunctional membrane channel of high conductance (500 pS) and permeability to molecules in the size range of ATP. In collaboration with several colleagues Dahl provided evidence that pannexin1 is the major ATP release channel in various cell types for signalling through purinergic receptors.

Irmgard D Dietzel heads the research group “Electrobiochemistry of neural cells” in the Department of Biochemistry II at the Ruhr-University in Bochum (RUB). After studying physics at the RWTH Aachen she joined the department of Neurophysiology at the Max-Plank-Institute for Psychiatry in Munich. With U. Heinemann she discovered shrinkages of the extracellular space during epilepsy-like neuronal hyperactivity due to electrolyte and water-flux induced volume changes of glial cells. Following postdoctoral work on the presynaptic regulation of transmitter release in the laboratory of J G Nicholls (at Stanford University and the Biocenter in Basel), she returned to the MPI for Psychiatry to investigate the ontogenetic development of voltage-activated ion currents in the laboratory of HD Lux After obtaining her “Habilitation” for Physiology  at the LMU Munich she moved to the RUB were she is involved in the development of Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy, the study of mechanisms leading to cytokine-induced damage of immature oligodendrocytes, and the regulation of the expression of voltage-gated ion currents constituting neuronal excitability.

Dr. Rice is a Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Neuroscience and Physiology at New York University School of Medicine.  She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Kansas, with a focus on neurochemistry.  Her NIH-funded laboratory studies factors that regulate the release of dopamine, which a key neurotransmitter in motor and reward pathways in the brain.  Specific projects include mechanistic studies of somatodendritic dopamine release, focused on substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons that degenerate in Parkinson's disease, and the regulation of axonal dopamine release in striatal target regions by diet, insulin, and drugs of abuse.  Dr. Rice is a member of NYU Parkinson and Movement Disorders Center.

Michael Koelle received his PhD in 1986 from Stanford University, where he worked in the laboratory of Dave Hogness and identified the receptor for the steroid hormone ecdysone that directs metamorphosis in insects. He did postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Bob Horvitz, where he identified the family of Regulator of G protein Signaling (RGS) proteins that terminate signaling of neurotransmitters that act through G protein coupled receptors. Since 1996 he has been on the faculty at Yale University, where he is currently Associate Professor of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for this program.  His research uses C. elegans as a model system to investigate the molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter signaling. Current projects in the Koelle lab focus on mechanisms that regulate serotonin signaling, including post-translational modifications of proteins that mediate serotonin signalling, and the co-release of serotonin with neuropeptides.

Miguel Rubi is Professor of Condensed Matter at the University of Barcelona. He was Director of Department , Chairman of the Physics Program of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and a Spanish Representative for EU Programs. Since 1996, he is the Director of the Sitges Conference on Statistical Physics. In 2003, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awarded him the von Humboldt Prize, and in 2003 the University of Trondheim awarded him the Onsager Medal. He was appointed CAS Fellow 2007/2008 by the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy. In 2010, the ‘Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats’ awarded him an ICREA Academia Prize. He has been appointed Onsager Professor at the University of Trondheim, Sandoval Vallarta Professor at UAM, Marcos Moshinsky Professor at UNAM and Institute of Physics Professor at San Luis Potosí of Mexico. In 2012-2013 he was Visiting Professor at CETHIL-INSA, Lyon. In 2013-14 he was Leverhulme Professor at Imperial College, London.

Srdjan D Antic obtained an MD in 1991 and M.S. degree (Biophysics) in 1995 at Belgrade University, Serbia. He worked as junior faculty at Belgrade School of Biology (1994-1996). Srdjan did his postdoctoral training with Dejan Zecevic at Yale University (1996-2000), and then with Patricia Goldman-Rakic also at Yale (2000-2001). Srdjan was awarded an NIH R01 grant in 2001, which allowed him to work on an independent project at Yale Univ. (Associate Research Scientist, 2002-2004). In 2004, Srdjan joined the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, CT (Associate Professor 2010-present). Lab web site: http://antic.uchc.edu/. His research fields are dendritic integration, human brain development and human stem cell technology. His current primary topics of interest are dendritic regenerative potentials, cortical UP and DOWN states, the physiology of the human subplate zone, and human genes responsible for the onset of spontaneous electrical activity.

Sudipta pursued his undergraduate studies at IIT Kanpur, and then obtained a Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1994 from the University of Pennsylvania. He subsequently joined Cornell University as a post-doctoral fellow working on multiphoton microscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. He was in the laboratory of Prof. Watt Webb, who pioneered both of these techniques.  He is currently a Professor of Chemical Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), and the faculty in charge of the Microscopy Research Facility there. He is on the editorial board of several international journals such as the Frontiers of Physiology and Membrane Biophysics, and the Journal of Optics. He has been the recipient of several prizes and fellowships, such as the SICO award from the National Academy of Sciences, India, and the Wellcome Trust Senior Overseas Research Fellowship. He is also the co-founder of the Fluorescence Society, India, and the National Co-ordinator of the Photonics Fellowship Program, DeitY, Govt. of India. His current research interest spans several different  problems, namely, protein aggregation, monoaminergic neurotransmission, and development of optical techniques for studying biological phenomena.

E. Sylvester Vizi, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sci., M.HAS., HonFBPhS is married with 2 children. Head, Department of Drug Research, Institute for Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Professor Emeritus, Semmelweis University, Budapest. Former President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2002-2008), former director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary. Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea (London), Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea (Salzburg), and Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine. Doctor Honoris Causa of several academies, and universities.

Visiting Scientist in several departments at Mainz University, Oxford University (with association Sir William Paton, 1967-1969); and in Parma. Visiting Professor of Psychiatry and Anesthesiology, 1984-2001 at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York.

Vizi pioneered the concepts of presynaptic inhibition of chemical signals in the nervous system and of a non-synaptic "cross-talk" between neurons, published more than 400 papers and several books.

Tomas joined the University of Nottingham in April 2010 as a lecturer in Pharmacology. His research interests focus on neuron-glial transmission in the cerebellum, and the kinetics of signal transduction in calcium and nitric oxide signalling networks in astrocytes. Previous positions Tomas has held: 2004-2010 BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. 2001-2004 Postdoctoral researcher in David Ogden's group, NIMR, Mill Hill. 1997-2001 PhD Neuroscience in John Garthwaite's group, Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, UCL.

Walter Stühmer war born in Bogotá, Colombia and got his High School degree in Valencia Spain. He studied nuclear physics at the Technical University in Munich and did his Masters Thesis on the production gamma-ray emitting isotopes with a cyclotron, for biophysical studies.  He worked on squid giant axons in Camogli, Italy, writing his PhD on the effect of K+ on K+-channel gating under supervision of Prof. Franco Conti. For his PostDoc, he went to Seattle, USA, with Prof. Wolf Almers and developed there the loose-patch clamp technique, measuring the lateral diffusion of K+ and Na+ channels in muscle cells. In 1983 he joined the laboratory of Prof. Erwin Neher in Göttingen, Germany and worked on the structure-function relationships of Na+ channels, in collaboration with Prof. Shosaku Numa from Kyoto, Japan. Since 1992 he is director at the Max-Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, Germany.

PhD, PI, Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics and Neurodegeneration, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University. 1984, BS Electronic instrumentation, Tongji University, Shanghai. 1990, PhD Biomedical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan. 1990-1993, postdoctoral fellow in Erwin Neher's lab, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen, Germany. 1993-95, Research Instructor, Departments of Physiology, Washington University St Louis, USA. Nov. 1995-97, Researcher Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, Loyola University, Chicago, USA. 1997-1999, professor and head, Department of Neuroscience and Biophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 1993-2000, professor and director, 1999-2004, Principle Investigator, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences; 2005-, Peking University. Vice president of Biophysical Society of China and chair of the Neurobiophysics and Neuroinformation Committee; Board member of International Symposium of Chromaffin Cells Biology. Editorial board member of journals: Journal of Physiology-London, NeuroMolecular Medicine, Cell Calcium.