Education/Training:

• B.S. Cell Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• PhD. Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  Mentor: Jeffrey Becker, Ph.D.
• Postdoctorate, Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
  Mentor: Randy Blakely, Ph.D.

Research Focus:

Structure-Function Aspects of the Serotonin Transporter

My research focuses on the structural components of the serotonin transporter and how the components work together to allow for ion-serotonin coupling and substrate translocation. To accomplish this, I use biochemical, electrophysiological and computational methods along with evolutionary genetic analysis. These methods have proven extremely useful in identifying residues that contribute to:

1. the translocation pathway of 5HT and other substrates
2. substrate binding
3. high-affinity antagonist binding
4. Na and Cl coupling to neurotransmitter movement

Publications:

• Henry LK, Meiler J, Blakely RD. Bound to be different: neurotransmitter transporters meet their bacterial cousins. Mol Interv. 2007 Dec;7(6):306-9. Review.
• Henry LK, Blakely RD. Distinctions between dopamine transporter antagonists could be just around the bend. Mol Pharmacol. 2008 Mar;73(3):616-8. Epub 2007 Dec 21.
• Henry LK, Defelice LJ, Blakely RD. Getting the message across: a recent transporter structure shows the way. Neuron. 2006 Mar 16;49(6):791-6. Review
• Henry LK, Field JR, Adkins EM, Parnas ML, Vaughan RA, Zou MF, Newman AH, Blakely RD. Tyr-95 and Ile-172 in transmembrane segments 1 and 3 of human serotonin transporters interact to establish high affinity recognition of antidepressants. J Biol Chem. 2006 Jan 27;281(4):2012-23. Epub 2005 Nov 3.
• Henry LK, Adkins EM, Han Q, Blakely RD. Serotonin and cocaine-sensitive inactivation of human serotonin transporters by methanethiosulfonates targeted to transmembrane domain I. J Biol Chem. 2003 Sep 26;278(39):37052-63. Epub 2003 Jul 17.
• Henry LK, Khare S, Son C, Babu VV, Naider F, Becker JM. Identification of a contact region between the tridecapeptide alpha-factor mating pheromone of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its G protein-coupled receptor by photoaffinity labeling. Biochemistry. 2002 May 14;41(19):6128-39.
• Liu S, Henry LK, Lee BK, Wang SH, Arshava B, Becker JM, Naider F. Position 13 analogs of the tridecapeptide mating pheromone from Saccharomyces cerevisiae: design of an iodinatable ligand for receptor binding. J Pept Res. 2000 Jul;56(1):24-34.
• Lay J, Henry LK, Clifford J, Koltin Y, Bulawa CE, Becker JM. Altered expression of selectable marker URA3 in gene-disrupted Candida albicans strains complicates interpretation of virulence studies. Infect Immun. 1998 Nov;66(11):5301-6.
• Bulawa CE, Miller DW, Henry LK, Becker JM. Attenuated virulence of chitin-deficient mutants of Candida albicans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995 Nov 7;92(23):10570-4.
• Becker JM, Henry LK, Jiang W, Koltin Y. Reduced virulence of Candida albicans mutants affected in multidrug resistance. Infect Immun. 1995 Nov;63(11):4515-8.