My long-term interest has been to understand the fundamental principles of nervous system development, function and plasticity by applying systematic genetic analyses. My experimental organism, the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster , has a long and distinguished history as the foremost forward genetic model of neurobiological mechanisms. The primary focus of my laboratory is on the synapse, the specialized intercellular junction which functions as the communication link between neurons. Chemical synapses mediate the vast majority of communication in the nervous system and exhibit plastic properties underlying the behavioral and cognitive malleability of the brain. Our experimental approach is to use a combination of forward genetics, reverse genetics and functional genomics to identify synaptic genes, generate mutants and then assay mutant phenotypes to elucidate the function of normal synaptic gene products.
Synaptic development involves specifying and constructing an intercellular communication link.
The developmental program specifies synaptic partnerships and aligns the presynaptic signaling field with the postsynaptic receptor field. The mature function of the synapse is to translate electrical information into chemical information and back again. This information transfer requires mechanisms to couple an action potential to the fusion of neurotransmitter vesicles, receipt of the signal by a receptor field and downstream signaling pathways. Synaptic plasticity is the key to nervous system adaptability, including higher cognitive functions. An increasing interest in our laboratory is to develop Drosophila models of human neurological diseases linked to inherited synaptic dysfunction.