Dr. Yulong Li

Diverse neuromodulators in the brain, such as acetylcholine, monoamines, lipids and neuropeptides, play important roles in a plethora of physiological processes including reward, movement, attention, sleep, learning and memory. Dysfunction of the neuromodulatory system is associated with a range of diseases, such as epilepsy, addition, neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. A longstanding yet largely unmet goal is to measure the dynamics of different neuromodulators reliably and specifically with high spatiotemporal resolution, particularly in behaving animals. To achieve this goal, we develop a series of genetically encoded GPCR-activation-based (GRAB) sensors for the detection of acetylcholine, dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, histamine, endocannabinoids, adenosine, ATP and neuropeptides, and validate the performance of these sensors in multiple preparations in vitro and in vivo. The GRAB sensor toolbox provides new insights into the dynamics and mechanism of neuromodulatory signaling both in health and disease.