Dr. Nichols' laboratory studies the physiological roles of peptides and peptide receptors by applying an interdisciplinary study using biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and physiology.
Research is conducted in experimental organisms relevant to all classes of animals.
Projects are designed to study the function, signaling pathways, and regulation of expression of the myosuppressin peptide family and related neuropeptides. Myosuppressins are structurally-related peptides that modulate neural function and muscle activity. DMS inhibits in vivo heart rate in a dose dependent manner at all stages of development. The gene and cDNA encoding DMS have been isolated to study processing. The structure-activity relationship of DMS has been established to delineate the molecular mechanism of action.