Molecular neuroscience: challenges ahead

Peter H Seeburg

doi:10.3389/neuro.01.015.2008

Peter H Seeburg

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.01.015.2008

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Abstract

OPINION article Front. Neurosci., 01 August 2008 https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.01.015.2008

Highlights

In 1987, he obtained a professorship at the Center for Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University in Germany and in 1996 became Director of the Department of Molecular Neurobiology at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. His lab elucidated the molecular and functional complexity of GABA-A receptors, the main inhibitory receptor channels in the central nervous system and, in collaboration with Bert Sakmann’s lab, determined the molecular and functional subtypes of ionotropic glutamate receptors mediating fast excitatory synaptic neurotransmission. His current work generates gene-targeted mice expressing functionally altered glutamate-gated channels to study the role of glutamate receptor subtypes in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and spatial learning
There will still be unexplored ion channels and transcription factors in our genome, but isn’t it merely a matter of time before these will be dragged onto the experimental stage? His colleague with an optimistic outlook, exulting in the great possibilities that molecular tools put at our disposal, will see himself more at the dawn of molecular neuroscience
The challenges begin with the grouping of proteins into functional complexes, as they operate in neural cells, preferably in vivo

Summary

Introduction

The challenges begin with the grouping of proteins into functional complexes, as they operate in neural cells, preferably in vivo. Peter Seeburg obtained his PhD in Genetics at the University of Tübingen in 1975. His lab elucidated the molecular and functional complexity of GABA-A receptors, the main inhibitory receptor channels in the central nervous system and, in collaboration with Bert Sakmann’s lab, determined the molecular and functional subtypes of ionotropic glutamate receptors mediating fast excitatory synaptic neurotransmission.

Results

Conclusion