Professor Phillip Robinson
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Professor
C29 - Children's Hospital Westmead |
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Research interests
Phil is working towards defining the molecular mechanisms of endocytosis at the synapse, in order to better understand synaptic transmission. His work defined the paradigm that endocytosis is highly regulated in neurons, triggered by stimulus-dependent dephosphorylation of 8 key endocytic proteins called the dephosphins. His major contributions have been: the discovery of dynamin phosphorylation, that calcineurin triggers endocytosis by dephosphorylation of dynamin; that Cdk5 resets the machinery; that dynamin recruits syndapin in a phospho-regulated manner; and that endocytosis can control synaptic transmission, and that endocytosis can be harnessed by development of small molecule dynamin inhibitors. His team has strong links with Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Newcastle to develop the first pharmacology for endocytosis. He uses mass spectrometry for phosphoproteomics to identify all phosphosites in all endocytic proteins and to rank them by abundance and physiological relevance.
Current national competitive grants*
2012
The role of clathrin in the spindle assembly checkpoint and as an anti-cancer target
Chircop M, Robinson P, McCluskey A, Sakoff J
NHMRC Project Grants ($629,685 over 3 years)
Mechanism of action of dynamin ring stabilizer compounds controlling the actin cytoskeleton
Robinson P, McCluskey A
NHMRC Project Grants ($637,020 over 3 years)
2011
Sulfonadyn-based dynamin I-specific inhibitors and epilepsy
Robinson P, McCluskey A
National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant ($807,862 over 3 years)
2010
Role of dynamin in modes of synaptic vesicle endocytosis
Robinson P
NHMRC Project Grant ($866,000 over 4 years)
* Grants administered through the University of Sydney