Optical Drug/metabolite sensors for In Vivo Precision Pharmacology

Description: High spatiotemporal analysis of drug action at specific tissues, cell assemblies (e.g., neural circuits), cell types, and subcellular compartments is important for understanding drug mechanism and circumventing adverse side effects, such as addiction. We are integrating fluorescent reporter with chemically induced dimerization (CID) systems like GCaMP, a calmodulin-based calcium biosensor, by rational design and high-throughput screening. Our goal is to achieve high specificity, suitable dynamic ranges and subcellular localizations. Currently, we are developing optical sensors opioids and cannabinoids.

Funding: NIDA (R21DA051194, R21DA051555, and R61DA051489).