Niswender Laboratory

My project is focused on investigating the therapeutic potential of targeting metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptor heterodimers, specifically the mGlu7/8 heterodimer. While drug discovery efforts for mGlu receptors have traditionally focused on homodimers, emerging evidence suggests that mGlu heterodimers exhibit unique pharmacology and circuit-specific expression patterns in the brain to regulate neural plasticity. In particular, the mGlu7/8 heterodimer regulates long term potentiation on the hippocampus, which may underlie deficits in learning and memory deficits that present in neurodevelopmental disorders associated mGlu7/8 gene abnormalities, such as ADHD and epilepsy. My goal is to not only to demonstrate the precise physiological roles of the mGlu7/8 heterodimer to regulate hippocampal neural plasticity, but also to assess the molecular pharmacology of this target with small molecule allosteric modulators to generate more effective and safe treatment strategies for neurodevelopmental disorders.