Tomas Hökfelt, M.D., Ph.D.
Chemical Neurotransmission Research
Research Focus
Our research is focused on chemical messengers in the nervous and endocrine systems, mainly based on histochemical techniques: Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. We also use molecular biological approaches including RT-PCR and have created some transgenic animals. We are interested in the concept that a neuron produces and releases more than one transmitter molecule. In particular our work has focused on the role of neuropeptides in the central and peripheral nervous system, including substance P, galanin and NPY, three peptides that have been discovered by Swedish scientists/at Karolinska Institutet. These peptides may be involved in numerous functions as well as in various diseases, for example pain and depression.
Selected Publications
Occurrence of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in some peripheral sympathetic noradrenergic neurons.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 74: 3587-3591, 1977
Neuropeptides in perspective: the last ten years.
Neuron 7: 867-879, 1991
Suppressed kindling epileptogenesis in mice with ectopic overexpression of galanin.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 98, 14006-14011, 2001
Peptidergic influences on proliferation, migration, and placement of neural progenitors in the adult mouse forbrain.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 105: 3610-3615, 2008
Karolinska Institutet
Retzius väg 8
S-17177 Stockholm, Sweden
