Brigitte Kieffer
Professor
The Kieffer laboratory, newly established at the CRBS (Center for Biomedical Research of Strasbourg, France) , is interested in G protein coupled receptors in mental health and disease. G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are major targets in biomedicine and show huge potential for psychiatric disorders. Our goal is to elucidate where and how GPCRs control neuronal signaling and functional connectivity in the living brain to regulate normal and pathological behavior. Towards this goal, we develop and study customized mice with targeted GPCR gene mutations (conditional knockout, knock-in). We use advanced approaches for behavioral phenotyping of mutant mice to challenge both circuit mechanisms (opto/chemogenetics) and disease models. We are also pioneering hyperresolutive non-invasive brain imaging in living animals that combines structural and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging for (i) whole brain mechanistic understanding of brain function and pathology and (ii) translation purposes towards diagnostics and treatment. Emphasis is (i) on opioid receptors, to study reward processing and implication in addiction, including mood disorders, and (ii) selected orphan GPCRs (oGPCRs), whose functions in the brain remain unknown, for discovery programs
