Jacob Goldberg, assistant professor of chemistry, and collaborator Thanos Tzounopoulos (University of Pittsburgh) have received an award for $134,000 for their project "Chemical Probes for Synaptic Zinc".
They will develop and prepare a new generation of small-molecule sensors that will be used to detect and quantitate zinc ions in the brain. Using these and other tools, the research team will investigate the role of zinc ions in fine-tuning neurotransmission, sound processing, and sound frequency discrimination in mammalian auditory circuits. The findings from this project will allow for a deeper understanding of the fundamental biology of normal hearing and of such pathological states as hearing loss, tinnitus, and schizophrenia.