Nervous System and Brain Disorders

Dr. Moshe Parnas

Neural circuits encode learning and memory

The Parnas lab uses the fruit fly to study how neural circuits encodes information and support behavior, learning and memory Using a multidisciplinary approach, we modulate the activity of single proteins and neural circuits in behaving animals and examine the consequences such manipulations have on flies’ perception, decisions and behavior. In particular we are interested in a novel phenomena in which G -protein coupled http://parnaslab.com / receptors (GPCRs) change their activity when neurons change their electrical activity. Whether these changes in GPCR activity have physiological importance is unknown .

Dr. Parnas , PhD, at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and Sagol Schol of Neuroscience, completed his PhD studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He conducted his postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford, where he was awarded the European Molecular Biology Organization and the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences Long Term Postdoctoral Fellowships. He is a board member of the Israeli Society for Neuroscience, a Review Editor for Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience and a recipient of the ERC Starting Award.

Approximately 35 % of approved drugs target GPCRs . Thus, unraveling the physiological roles of this novel phenomena may lay the foundation to an entire new approach of drugs development.