Dr Michael Bruchas - 2014

Michael Bruchas’s research training is in GPCR pharmacology and neuroscience. His graduate work focused on adrenergic receptors while his postͲdoctoral work was in the department of pharmacology, at the University of Washington, Seattle, in Charles Chavkin’s laboratory.  Here he studied opioid receptor biased signaling in behavior using mouse genetics and behavioral approaches. His laboratory at Washington University (St. Louis) investigates interactions between stress, GPCRs, neuropeptides, and neural circuits in affective behavior.   Recent efforts by his group have focused on developing tools for wireless optogenetics and optical GPCRs for examining signaling pathways and behavior in vivo. Using a variety of genetic, pharmacological, engineering, and optogenetic approaches, he will discuss recent efforts by his team to dissect the role of opioid peptides and receptor signalling in models of affective behavior.