Dennis Dougherty: Chemistry on the Brain

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On Friday, April 29, 2016, Caltech celebrated the launch of Break Through: The Caltech Campaign—an ambitious fundraising initiative that will help secure the Institute’s future. The celebration began with a symposium for the entire campus and JPL community: faculty, students, staff, alumni, family, and friends. A faculty member from each of Caltech’s six academic divisions explored briefly a seminal question and its potential to change the world. Following the symposium, all were invited to an outdoor festival marking the launch of the campaign.

Chemist Dennis Dougherty presented “Chemistry on the Brain.” In the talk, he shares new techniques developed at Caltech that allow scientists to probe the complex proteins of the human nervous system with unprecedented precision. Dougherty, who is Caltech’s George Grant Hoag Professor of Chemistry, shows how studies using these techniques have provided valuable insights into how small molecules, including pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse, exert their effects on the nervous system. He illustrates such studies by focusing on the action of nicotine and related substances.

[Source: caltech YouTube link]