Jonathan Sweedler
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Chemistry
Every brain cell holds hundreds of thousands of distinct molecules, and drugs of abuse can change them. Measuring this chemistry is hard.
- Fields
Chemistry
Neuroscience
- Topics
neurochemistry
metabolomics
peptidomics
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2029
What they work on
- Measure small molecules, peptides and proteins in defined brain nuclei and single cells, using mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, peptidomics and proteomics.
- Map where molecules are found and how they change after drug exposure, using mass spectrometry imaging, single-cell isolation and measurement of activity-dependent release.
- Develop sampling and separation methods for tissues, cells and organelles that split complex brain samples into simpler fractions for mass spectrometry, across species from fruit flies to cows.
- Integrate different 'omics data types with bioinformatics and predictive modeling to support user projects on addiction, opioids, pain, reward and memory.
More about the research
Mass spectrometry can identify small molecules, peptides and proteins, but unlike DNA or RNA they cannot be copied to boost the signal, so tiny samples are difficult to measure. These grants support a center that builds measurement tools and offers them to neuroscientists studying addiction, pain and how neurons communicate.
Why it matters
Many drug abuse and basic neuroscience projects lack tools to measure brain chemistry. By providing these measurements, the center could help researchers understand how neurons interact in health and after exposure to drugs of abuse, including opioids. This could inform work on addiction, pain and pain management.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Drew Jones
New York University, NY·Biochemistry
Provide metabolomics services to cancer researchers, including global and untargeted metabolomics, lipidomics, mass spectrometry imaging and custom targeted methods for measuring specific metabolites.
Hao Chen
New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ·Chemistry
Develop a "bottom-up" mass spectrometry imaging method that identifies tissue proteins from their peptide fragments rather than as intact proteins, aiming to identify far more proteins per imaging experiment.
Xiang Zhang
University of Louisville, KY·Biochemistry
Support hepatobiology and toxicology research projects with established omics technologies, providing metabolomic, proteomic, lipidomic and bioinformatic analyses of investigator samples.
The school
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: 41 labs on PI Pages, $907M a year on research, 870 research doctorates a year.
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