About Dr. Featherstone's Research

Most information flow in animal (and human) nervous systems occurs via glutamatergic synapses. In the Featherstone lab, we are working to understand how information flow through glutamatergic synapses is controlled. In particular, we're interested in the molecular mechanisms regulating glutamate receptor abundance.

Most of our experiments use fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). Powerful molecular genetic techniques available for flies make it relatively easy to discover new biological processes or manipulate specific genes and proteins. Furthermore, individual identifiable glutamatergic synapses in flies are experimentally accessible in situ throughout development for a variety of techniques, including electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, voltage clamp electrophysiology, and confocal fluorescent optical imaging (all of which we use). We use mice to test whether some of the things we learn from flies also apply to mammals (like us).

More information, including a complete publication list and descriptions of current projects, is available via our lab web page: http://www.uic.edu/˜def.

Representative Publications

Julie Karr, Vasia Vagin, Kaiyun Chen, Subhashree Ganesan, Oxana Olenkina, Vladimir Gvozdev, and David E. Featherstone. (2009) Regulation of glutamate receptor availability by microRNAs. Journal of Cell Biology 185(4):685-697

Yael Grosjean, Micheline Grillet, Hrvoje Augustin, Jean-Francois Ferveur, and David E. Featherstone. (2008) A glial amino acid transporter controls synapse strength and courtship in Drosophila. Nature Neuroscience 11(1):54-61

David E. Featherstone and Scott A. Shippy. (2008) Regulation of synaptic transmission by ambient extracellular glutamate. The Neuroscientist 14(2):171-181

Hrvoje Augustin/Yael Grosjean, Kaiyun Chen, Qi Sheng, and David E. Featherstone. (2007) Nonvesicular release of glutamate by glial xCT transporters suppresses glutamate receptor clustering in vivo. Journal of Neuroscience 27:111-123

Faith L.W. Liebl, Kristen M. Werner, Qi Sheng, Brian D. McCabe, and David E. Featherstone. (2006) A Genome-wide P-element Screen for Drosophila Synaptogenesis Mutants. Journal of Neurobiology 66(3):332-347s

K. Chen, C. Merino, S.J. Sigrist, and D.E. Featherstone. (2005) The 4.1 Protein Coracle Mediates Subunit-selective Anchoring of Drosophila Glutamate Receptors to the Postsynaptic Actin Cytoskeleton. Journal of Neuroscience 25(28):6667-6675