Proteomic analysis of synaptic structures

Proteomics is the large-scale analysis of protein expression in a biological system under defined conditions or factors which determine the expression level of proteins. This is complementary to DNA or RNA based genomic approaches and can lead to valuable information about the cellular function of proteins. The introduction of proteomics technologies into neuroscience research has now given new opportunities to study fundamental questions in neurotoxicology, neurometabolism and to investigate the molecular basis of brain function and diseases or mental disorders. Using proteomic protein profiling a more comprehensive view of functional diversity and specialisation of different brain regions, subregions, cell types or even organelles will broaden our understanding of brain physiology and pathology. The basic element to study mechanisms of neuronal plasticity is the synapse. Therefore this study focusses on proteomic approaches to different types of synaptic structures or biochemically defined synapse-enriched fractions.