Receptor signalling through intracellular calcium stores in chromaffin cells

Funded Activity Summary

The function of cells in the body is controlled by many hormones and neurotransmitters acting on the cell's surface. Hormones and transmitters mediate their effects by producing chemical signals within the cell that regulate its activities. One key cell signalling chemical is calcium, especially in nerve cells which have developed sophisticated mechanisms for using calcium to control their function. Recently, new levels of complexity have been discovered, both in how cell calcium levels are modified by hormones and transmitters and in how these complex calcium signals are used by cells to control their function. This project will investigate how hormones and transmitters can produce different types of calcium signals in nerve cells, and how these signals affect different aspects of the nerve cell's function. In particular, it will establish how two different types of specialised calcium stores within nerve cells are used by different classes of hormone and transmitter, and the distinct cellular functions these two calcium stores can regulate. The results will provide fundamental new information on how nerve cells control their activity and may help identify potential new targets for drugs.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2003

End Date: 01-01-2005

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $461,000.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical parasitology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Basic science | Calcium signalling | Cell signalling | Intracellular calcium | Ion channels | Neurochemistry | Transmitter biosynthesis | Transmitter release

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