Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D., executive director of the FAU Brain Institute and a professor of biomedical science in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, received the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2019 STEM Innovation Awards. The South Florida Science Center and Stiles-Nicholson Foundation hosted the second annual STEM Innovation Awards on Sept. 7, to recognize leadership, service, and collaboration in the field of STEM.
Research in the Blakely laboratory is focused on how presynaptic plasma membrane transporter proteins support chemical signaling in the nervous system, how they mediate the entry of transmitter-like neurotoxins into neurons, and whether altered signaling in disease states is supported by genetic variations in transporter structure. Over the past decade, we have been actively involved in the molecular cloning of transporter genes, including the identification of transporters for norepinephrine, epinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, proline, creatine, and choline. Using modern techniques in molecular biology, biochemistry, imaging, and genetics, we apply a multi-disciplinary approach to understand how transporters are organized in the plasma membrane, how they recognize their substrates, how they are regulated, and whether defects in their activity, trafficking, or regulation contribute to altered behavior and physiology.
