Research Interests
Sensory physiology, biophysics of odor detection, receptors, reconstitution of membrane associated macromolecules. The major research aims are to determine the initial chemoreceptive events in the animal olfactory system and to find out how is odorant information translated into electrical events in the olfactory receptor. The work involves the transfer of macromolecules from olfactory receptor cells into artificial bimolecular membranes, monolayer and multilayers, and studying the electrical and chemical properties of the reconstituted systems.
Another focus of this research is the use of functional reconstitution of the olfactory receptor cell to produce an artificial system responsive to small (subnanomolar) concentrations of odorant. The objective of this study is to develop a working prototype of an electrochemical sensor which shares basic molecular mechanisms associated with the initial steps in olfaction. We are also studying glutamate receptors reconstituted in bilayers using a combination of patch clamp and biochemical techniques. The main focus of this work is to determine molecular mechanisms of the specific facilitation of electrical activity of some of these receptors involved in the information storage (memory) in the brain.
