Research in the Bridges laboratory focuses on the transport systems responsible for mediating the uptake and sequestration of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Using conformationally constrained analogues of this acidic amino acid, Bridges and his associates probe the pharmacological specificity and the physiologically roles of these transporters in the brain and spinal cord. This work employs a wide range of experimental systems (e.g., subcellular preparations, primary tissue culture, cell lines expressing cloned transporters) and approaches (e.g., molecular modeling, organic synthesis, radiotracer flux, HPLC, radioligand autoradiography).
