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People ■ Andrea Barberis
Andrea Barberis's foto

Andrea Barberis

Team Leader

NBT / Cellular NeuroPhysiology

Address Via Morego 30
City Genoa
ZIP Code 16163
Country Italy
Phone +39 010 17181517

Bio

Andrea Barberis graduated in Biology at the University of Genoa in 1996, studying the permeation of heavy metal ions in L-type calcium channels in cerebellar granule cells. From 1998 to 2002 he accomplished his PhD studies at the Department of Biophisics–SISSA International School for Advanced Studies- under the supervision of Enrico Cherubini studying the gating of recombinant and synaptic GABAA receptors. From 2002 to 2003 he collaborated with Enrico Cherubini (SISSA) and Jerzy Mozrzymas (University of Medicine, Poland) studying the variability of the synaptic quantal size in relation to the kinetics of the agonist release in the synaptic cleft in hippocampal cultured neurons. During his post-doc in the Stefano Vicini’s lab at Gergetown University (Washington DC, USA, 2003-2005) he studied the gating properties of different GABAA subtypes by analyzing their single channel behavior in equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions and he investigated the developmental changes of the GABA transient in the synaptic cleft in cerebellar granule cells. He also partecipated to several projects including the study of the role of pre-synaptic glutamate receptors at GABAergic synapses in cerebellar granule cells and the tonic inhibition in GABA-alpha1 subunit deficient mice. From 2005 to 2007 he had a CNRS post-doc in the Christophe Mulle’s lab (Bordeaux, France) studying the gating properties of kainate receptors.     

Currently, he has a team leader position at Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Barberis' lab focuses on the study of the GABAergic synapse at high spatial and temporal resolution. His research projects aim to understand the post-synaptc determinants of plasticity at inhibitory synapses. In Barberis’ group, standard electrophysiology is implemented by the use of diffraction limited UV laser uncaging and advanced imaging techniques including single particle tracking.

Andrea Barberis has solid background in neurophysiology and has keen interest in studying the behavior of ionotropic fast ligand gated receptor channels. He contributed optimizing ultra-fast perfusion systems and emphasizing the impact of non-equilibrium conditions activation of GABAA receptors in the GABAergic synaptic transmission.

Projects

1)       Study of the biophysic properties of GABAA receptors at GABAergic synapses. This issue is addressed by using UV laser GABA-caged photolysis with high spatial and temporal resolution.

 

2)       Study of the role of Gephyrin in the plasticity at GABAergic synapses by investigating the lateral mobility of GABAA receptors in cultured hippocampal neurons

 

3)       Study of the role of the chloride transporter KCC2 in the regulation of GABAAR subtypes expression 

 

 

Other Publications

 

Succol F, Fiumelli H, Benfenati F, Cancedda L, Barberis A. (2011) Intracellular chloride concentration influences GABAA receptor subunit composition. Submitted 

  

Barberis A, Petrini EM, Mozrzymas JW. (2011) Impact of synaptic neurotransmitter concentration time course on the kinetics and pharmacological modulation of inhibitory synaptic currents. Front Cell Neurosci. 2011;5:6

 

Petrini EM, Nieus T, Ravasenga T, Succol F, Guazzi S, Benfenati F, Barberis A (2011). Influence of GABAAR monoliganded states on GABAergic responses. J Neurosci. 2;31(5):1752-61

 

Benke D, Barberis A, Kopp S, Altmann KH, Schubiger M, Vogt KE, Rudolph U, Möhler H. (2008) GABA(A) receptors as in vivo substrate for the anxiolytic action of valerenic acid, a major constituent of valerian root extracts. Neuropharmacology. 

  

Barberis A, Sachidhanandam S and Mulle C. (2008) GluR6/KA2 kainate receptors mediate slow deactivating currents J. Neurosci. 28(25):6402-6. 

 

Mozrzymas JW, Barberis A, Vicini S. (2007) GABAergic currents in RT and VB thalamic nuclei follow kinetic pattern of alpha3- and alpha1-subunit-containing GABAA receptors.  Eur J. Neurosci. 26(3):657-65 

 

Barberis A , Jerzy W. Mozrzymas, Pavel I. Ortinski and Vicini S. (2007) Desensitization and binding properties determine distinct a1 and a3 GABAA receptor-channel kinetic behavior Eur J. Neurosci 26(3):657-65

 

Ortinski PI, Turner JR, Barberis A, Motamedi G, Yasuda RP, Wolfe BB, Kellar KJ, Vicini S. (2006) Deletion of the GABA(A) receptor alpha1 subunit increases tonic GABA(A) receptor current: a role for GABA uptake transporters. J. Neurosci. 6;26(36):9323-31.

 

Barberis A, Lu C, Vicini S, Mozrzymas JW. (2005) Developmental changes of GABA synaptic transient in cerebellar granule cells. Mol Pharmacol. 67(4):1221-8.

 

Fiszman ML, Barberis A, Lu C, Fu Z, Erdelyi F, Szabo G, Vicini S. (2005) NMDA receptors increase the size of GABAergic terminals and enhance GABA release. J Neurosci. 23;25(8):2024-31.  

 

Barberis A, Petrini EM, Cherubini E. (2004) Presynaptic source of quantal size variability at GABAergic synapses in rat hippocampal neurons in culture Eur J Neurosci. 20(7):1803-10

 

 Mozrzymas JW, Barberis A. (2004) Changes of GABA(A)receptor activation kinetics in hippocampal neurons cultured for different periods of time. Cell Mol Biol Lett. 9(1):61-7.



Petrini E. M., Zacchi P., Barberis A., Mozrzymas J. W., and Cherubini E. (2003) Declusterization of GABAA receptors affects the kinetic properties of GABAergic currents in cultured hippocampal neurons. J. Biol. Chem. 2;278(18):16271-9 



 Mozrzymas JW, Barberis A, Mercik K, Zarnowska ED.  (2003) Binding Sites, Singly Bound States, and Conformation Coupling Shape GABA-Evoked Currents. J. Neurophysiol. 89(2):871-83 

 

Barberis A, Petrini E. M., Cherubini E, and Mozrzymas J.W. (2002) Allosteric interaction of Zn++ with recombinant a1b2g2 and a1b2 GABAA receptors. Neuropharmacology  43(4):607-18

 

 Barberis A, Cherubini E, and Mozrzymas J.W. (2000) Zinc Inhibits Miniature GABAergic Currents by Allosteric Modulation of GABAA Receptor Gating. J. Neurosci. 20: 8618-8627.

 

Mozrzymas JW, Barberis A, Michalak K, Cherubini E (1999) Chlorpromazine inhibits miniature GABAergic currents by reducing the binding and by increasing the unbinding rate of GABAA receptors. J. Neurosci.1;19(7):2474-88

 

Mozrzymas J.W., Barberis A, Cherubini E (1999) Facilitation of miniature GABAergic currents by chlorpromazine in cultured rat hippocampal cells. Neuroreport 2;10(11):2251  

 

Usai C, Barberis A, Moccagatta L, Marchetti C (1999) Pathways of cadmium influx in mammalian neurons. J Neurochem. 72(5):2154-61

Usai C, Barberis A, Moccagatta L, Marchetti C (1997) Pathways of cadmium uptake in excitable mammalian cells: a microspectrofluorimetric study. Eur J Histochem 41 Suppl 2:189-90


 

 


 

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