Ashley Brady, Ph.D., is a post-doctoral research fellow who joined the Conn laboratory in September, 2005.  Ashley obtained her doctoral training at Vanderbilt University in the laboratory of Lee E. Limbird, Ph.D. where her work focused on understanding the role of the interacting protein, spinophilin, on alpha2-adrenergic receptor trafficking.  As a recipient of the Chateaubriand Fellowship from the French Embassy, she spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Drs. Jean-Philippe Pin and Laurent Prezeau at the CNRS in Montpellier, France.  There, she employed a proteomic approach to identify novel interacting proteins of the GABAB receptor.  Ashley continues to pursue her interest in G protein-coupled receptor signaling and function in the Conn laboratory where she is currently taking advantage of the VICB High Throughput Screening facility to identify novel, subtype-selective ligands of the muscarinic M1 acetylcholine receptor.  She hopes that these compounds may provide exciting new tools to definitively determine whether the physiological and behavioral effects of mAChR agonists thought to be important for antipsychotic activity are mediated by M1.  Ultimately, a better understanding of these receptors could lead to improved therapies for patients suffering from a variety of neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and Schizophrenia.

Selected Publications

• Shirey, J.K., Xiang, Z., Orton, D., Brady, A.E., Myers-Johnson, K.A., Williams, R.,  
   Rodriguez, A.L., Weaver, D., Niswender, C.M., Conn, P.J.  Development and use of 
   allosteric potentiators to examine the role of M4 mAChR in modulating hippocampal  
   neurotransmission. Nat Chem Biol. 4(1):42-50, 2008.
• Kamondanai, H., Da Costa, H., Nong, Y., Brady, A.E., Tamagnan G.D., Conn, P.J. A novel family of potent negative allosteric modulators of group II mtabotropic glutamate receptors.  J Pharmacol Exp Ther., 322(1): 254-64, 2007.
• Kamondanai, H., DePaulis, T., Chen, Y., Brady, A.E., Grover, V.K., Alagille, D., Tamagnan G.D., Conn, P.J. A novel family of positive  allosteric modulators of mGluR1 interact with a site distinct from that of negative allosteric modulators. Mol Pharm., 70(2): 616-26,2006.
• Brady, A.E., and Conn, P.J.,  Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Ligands as Novel Therapeutic Agents, Ch.XIII, In The Glutamate Receptors (Gereau R.W., and Swanson, G.T., eds). Humana Press. Inc., 2006.
• Brady, A.E., Wang, Q., Rizzo, M., Greengard, P., Limbird, L.E.  Agonist enrichment of  spinophilin at the cell surface is a2-AR subtype-selective and involves bg subunits of Gi proteins. Mol Pharm. 67 (5):1690-6, 2005.
• Wang, Q., Zhao, J., Brady, A.E., Feng, J., Allen, P.B., Lefkowitz, R.J., Greengard, P., Limbird, L.E. Spinophilin Blocks Arrestin Actions in Vitro and in Vivo at G Protein-Coupled Receptors. Science, 304:1940-1944, 2004.
• Brady, A.E., Wang, Q., Colbran, R.J., Allen, P.B., Greengard, P., Limbird, L.E.  Spinophilin Stabilizes Cell Surface Expression of a2B-Adrenergic Receptors.  J. Biol. Chem. 278 (34):32405-32412, 2003.
• Richman, J.G., Brady, A.E., Wang, Q., Hensel, J.L., Colbran, R.J., Limbird, L.E.  Agonist Regulated Interaction Between a2-Adrenergic Receptors and Spinophilin.  J. Biol. Chem., 276 (18):15003-15008, 2000.