Professor Robert Vandenberg
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Professor
D06 - Blackburn Building |
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Themes | Research interests | Grants | PhD & Masters' project opportunities | Honours project opportunities | Keywords
Research interests
Associate Professor Vandenberg’s research interests have focused on understanding how neurotransmitter transporters work. These proteins play key roles in regulating neurotransmission in the brain and are also the targets of a number of theraputic drugs and drugs of abuse. The laboratory uses a number of state-of-the-art molecular and biophysical techniques to address questions as to how these proteins bind neurotransmitters, how drugs interact with and modulate transporters and how these processes go wrong in disease states such Alzheimer’s disease, Motor Neurone Disease and Ischemia following a stroke.
Current national competitive grants*
2012
Lipid Modulation of Glycine Transporters
Vandenberg R, Ryan R
NHMRC Project Grants ($253,088 over 3 years)
2010
Mechanism of glutamate transport from experimental and simulation studies
Kuyucak S, Ryan R, Vandenberg R
Australian Research Council Discovery Project ($420,000 over 3 years)
* Grants administered through the University of Sydney
Honours project opportunities
Characterization of Drug Binding sites on Glycine Transporters
Defining Drug Binding Sites on GLYT1
Understanding the mechanism of transport by the glutamate transporter family using chimeras and site-directed mutagenesis