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NIDA Proteomics Center
> Mission Statement
Yale/NIDA Neuroproteomics Center
Mission Statement
Fourteen faculty members with an established
history of studies of the molecular actions of psychostimulants and psychotropic
drugs, as well as of other basic aspects of neurobiology, will work together
with the W.M. Keck Foundation Biotechnology Resource Laboratory to create the
Neuroproteomics Center. The theme of the Center, “Proteomics of Altered
Signaling in Addiction” will bring together exceptionally strong
Yale programs in proteomics and signal transduction in the brain to identify
adaptive changes in protein signaling that occur in response to substance abuse.
In addition, the Center will provide training in proteomics technologies, and
will improve existing and develop new proteomics technologies that can be
applied to biological questions related to the actions of drugs of abuse. The
Center will include five cores: Protein Separation and Profiling, Protein
Identification, Protein Microarray, Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, and
Administration. A "lipidomics" component, included in the Protein Separation
Core, will also allow the analysis of cellular lipids.
The behavioral adaptations that accompany drug
addiction are believed to result from both short and long term adaptive changes
in brain reward centers. To date, molecular studies of drugs of abuse have
elucidated some of the transcriptional changes that occur in the addicted brain.
However, little is known about the effects of drugs of abuse on the neuronal
proteome. The Center will, through its highly interdisciplinary and
collaborative organization, bring together Yale faculty with complementary
expertise to gain a far deeper insight into how drugs of abuse alter expression
and post-translational modification of proteins on a global scale. Methods that
will be used will include MALDI-MS based biomarker analysis, two-dimensional
chromatography, differential (fluorescence) gel electrophoresis (DIGE),
isotope-coded affinity tag (ICAT), and antibody microarrays. Methods also will
be developed for studying the brain phosphoproteome and these will be applied to
studies of the actions of drugs of abuse. Specific goals of the research
supported by the Center include analysis of the actions of opiates; the
psychostimulants, cocaine and amphetamine; and nicotine on the neuroproteome.
Other studies will focus on the proteomic changes that occur both pre- and post-synaptically
following the actions of drugs of abuse.
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