Laura Mikél Mc Nair

Laura Mikél McNair

Guest Researcher, Assistant Professor

Member of:

    Introductory remarks on publicationslist

    My latest (unpublished) results comprise the identification of compounds isolated from Eremophila species, capable of both potentiating and inhibiting the transport of dopamine through the dopamine transporter (DAT). I am currently seeking to characterise these compounds further and elucidate the mechanism by which they exert their action.

    During my PostDoc with Professor Dan Stærk (2016-2019), conducted in tight collaboration with a food company, we identified and characterized a new antifungal peptide in fermented milk product containing bioprotective Lactobacillus cultures (McNair et al. 2018 FEMS Yeast), and established that competitive exclusion is a major bioprotective mechanism of Lactobacilli against Fungal Spoilage in Fermented Milk Products (Siedler et al. 2020 Appl Environ Microbiol).

    Supervision of students during my PostDoc allowed me to contribute to excellent natural product research by Dr. Abd Malik, identifying novel antidiabetic zanthones in extracts of an endophyte (Malik et al. 2020 Fitoterapia), and by Maliheh Najari Beidokhti, highlighting the antidiabetic potential of ethanolic extracts of P. guajava leaves using multiple assays (Beidokhti et al. 2020 J Ethnopharmacol).

    The work from my PhD (2013-2016) include thorough characterisation of cellular energy metabolism in acutely isolated hippocampal and cerebral cortical mouse brain slices using 13C-mapping, GC-MS and HPLC (McNair et al. 2017 Neurochem Res) and provides evidence of metabolic similarity of these two brain regions. Moreover, I propose new interesting approaches for interpreting 13C-mapping data. This work was followed-up by evaluating the specificity of 13C-substrates for assessing astrocytic and neuronal metabolism individually in acute brain slices (Andersen, McNair et al. 2017 J Neurosci Res). Other parts of my work in acute brain slices have contributed to a recent review discussing the role of glutamate dehydrogenase and amino transferases in connection to glutamate oxidation in astrocytes (McKenna, Stridt, McNair et al. 2016 J Neurosci Res).

    As part of my PhD I also completed two large rodent ex vivo studies combining 13C-mapping with GC-MS and 13C/1H NMR, in collaboration with excellent researchers at Yale University and Harvard Medical School (USA), respectively. I reveal significant brain regional differences in the rate of pyruvate carboxylase, an astrocytic enzyme essential for de novo synthesis of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate (manuscript in progress). Furthermore, I provide data suggesting that the glutamate transporter GLT-1 expressed in neurons is important for glutamate homeostasis and synaptic energy metabolism in cerebral cortex (McNair et al. 2019 J Neurosci). Additional studies extend this hypothesis to the hippocampus and striatum (McNair et al. 2020 NERE)

    Results from my undergraduate research (2011-2012) at Bath University (UK) provide indications of differential changes in neural plasticity induced by addictive drug exposure with and without the context of a place-preference learning task, measured as long-term potentiation in hippocampal slices. This work was presented on scientific poster at the British Pharmacology Society meeting in 2012 and my data formed the basis for further work within Prof. C. Bailey's group.

    Finally, my Master’s thesis elucidates the significant impact of pre-natal exposure to nicotine on brain function, measured as calcium responses to glutamatergic stimulation in brain slice from pubs born of nicotine treated mice (McNair & Kohlmeier 2015 J Dev Orig Health Dis).


    1. 2016
    2. Published

      Glutamate oxidation in astrocytes: Roles of glutamate dehydrogenase and aminotransferases

      McKenna, M. C., Stridh, M. H., McNair, Laura M., Sonnewald, U., Waagepetersen, Helle S. & Schousboe, Arne, 15 Sep 2016, In: Journal of Neuroscience Research. 94, 12, p. 1561-1571 11 p.

      Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    ID: 44491929