26/01 – Etienne Herzog : Probing synapses ex-vivo through synaptosome sorting

winter-spring 2021, 26 Jan at 10h30, online – Ask link to a SPPIN member.

Etienne HERZOG – Interdisciplinary Institute for NeuroSciences, Bordeaux

With an initial training in biotechnologies and molecular genetics, I focus my research on the molecular characterization of neurotransmitter systems in the rodent brain. I first contributed to the characterization of the 3 vesicular glutamate transporters and used VGLUTs as markers of synapses and synaptic vesicles of glutamatergic neurons. Our more recent work built on the VGLUT1^venus knock-in mice I generated as a fellow with Prof Nils Brose (MPIEM, Goettingen). Through fluorescence imaging on VGLUT1venus mouse model samples we characterized several features of synaptic vesicle trafficking at glutamatergic synapses and axons. We now established the purification of synaptosomes from adult brain tissue using fluorescence activated sorting, a method we named FASS. With FASS, we explore the local molecular composition of synapses using highly purified populations of synaptosomes. We aim at unravelling the molecular diversity of synapses required to build functional neuron circuits.

In the present talk I’ll present our recent findings on glutamatergic and dopaminergic synapses.