Team Bio

The team is part of the Cytomotors Group lead by Dr. Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan at UNSW Sydney. Greg, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the group, and his PhD student Jack are leading this project. Greg provides the expertise on receptor imaging to look at serotonin receptors in detail, Jack provides the knowledge of the signalling pathways involved, and the Cytomotors Group provides all the imaging and analysis expertise to make sure we figure out exactly how psychedelics work in the cell.

Gregory Redpath

I am a cell biologist who specialises in using live cell microscopy to study how receptors transmit signals, or information, throughout the cell.

I undertook my PhD at the University of Sydney, followed by a Postdoctoral position at the University of New South Wales investigating T cell receptors, a Postdoctoral position at the University of Otago investigating how lipoprotein uptake is regulated, and am now back at the University of New South Wales as a Postdoctoral Fellow investigating how receptors are regulated inside the cell. At every stage of my career, I have developed imaging techniques to investigate how receptors are moved into and around cells at the nanoscale level using live cell microscopic imaging.

Every project I have worked on has looked at aspects of how receptors are taken up into a cell and how this controls what the receptor does. The best way to look at this is using live cell imaging- we can see what happens to a receptor from the moment a ligand (for example, serotonin) binds and follow what happens.

My interest in serotonin receptors started with the project I was working on at the University of Otago. We found that antidepressants and serotonin changed how a common form of cholesterol that is important in heart disease was taken up into liver cells. I found it fascinating that serotonin regulated this process, which got me reading and thinking about serotonin receptors and has led me to the project I'm working on now.

The more I read about serotonin receptors, the more I realised there was so much still to learn about how they are regulated by cell uptake mechanisms. And the more I read about psychedelics, the more I realised that we need to understand how they act on serotonin receptors at a cellular level so we properly understand how they act. This has led to the project we've proposed here, which I hope will help lead us to create new antidepressants based on psychedelic compounds.

Jack Zhang

I'm a first-year PhD student focusing on molecular pharmacology and drug discovery, particularly in relation to G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Last year, I completed a Bachelor of Advanced Science at the University of New South Wales with majors in pharmacology and physiology. My Honours project examined the function of atypical amino acid motifs in the orphan receptor GPR146—a GPCR implicated in cholesterol metabolism and atherogenesis. Here I gained proficiency in key experiment methods such as immunoblotting, biotinylation and reporter gene assays.

In my PhD, I have shifted topics into the exciting world of serotonin (my favourite neurotransmitter), working alongside Greg to unravel the puzzle behind the role of serotonin receptors in the antidepressant response. My project aims to investigate their endosomal signalling and trafficking profiles in response to psychedelics.

Psychedelics display remarkable efficacy in treating depression and anxiety but must be administered under supervision due to the potential for hallucinations. Both their hallucinogenic and therapeutic effects are thought to involve various serotonin receptors, but the exact where and how remains elusive. Thus, I am learning various modalities of live-cell imaging and the application of fluorescent proteins to visualise the spatiotemporal profile of relevant signalling molecules. How do cells respond to endogenous serotonin versus psychedelics? What cell cascades are responsible for antidepressant and hallucinogenic effects? Is it possible to design a compound biased towards just one pathway? Answering these questions will help to expedite the development of psychedelic-based therapeutics.