Dr. Brownstein is participating in a collaborative study of autosomal dominant cancer of the e prostate. Currently, he and his coworkers are undertaking a genome wide search for linkage. Don Button is continuing to use aequorin to examine free calcium levels in intracellular organelles. He has shown that it is possible to measure calcium fluxes in the Golgi apparatus and the endoplasmic reticulum by targeting wild-type aequorin to these spaces. Presently Don is engineering and testing aequorins with lower affinities for calcium in hopes that these will be useful reporters in intracellular spaces where calcium concentrations are relatively high. Janet Clark is still attempting to define the topology of the GABA transporter. She has developed techniques that may prove up to this job and may have general utility for structural studies of membrane proteins. Miklos Palkovits is continuing to study the neuronal pathways in the central nervous system responsible for mediating the response of the pituitary-specifically, release of ACTH-to stress and pain.
