Professor Frederic Meunier: Single Molecule Neuroscience Laboratory

The overall goal of our research is to determine how brain cells communicate and survive in health and disease. Our lab focuses on the molecular events that govern vesicular trafficking within presynaptic nerve terminals and neurosecretory cells. Our discoveries have led to a deep understanding of how secretory vesicles interact with the cortical actin network prior to fusing with the plasma membrane to release the neurotransmitter. 

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Selected recent publications

Visualizing endocytic recycling and trafficking in live neurons by subdiffractional tracking of internalized molecules 
Joensuu, Merja, Martinez-Marmol, Ramon, Padmanabhan, Pranesh, Glass, Nick R., Durisic, Nela, Pelekanos, Matthew, Mollazade, Mahdie, Balistreri, Giuseppe, Amor, Rumelo, Cooper-White, Justin J., Goodhill, Geoffrey J. and Meunier, Frederic A. (2017) Nature Protocols12 12:2590-2622. doi:10.1038/nprot.2017.116

In vivo single-molecule imaging of syntaxin1A reveals polyphosphoinositide- and activity-dependent trapping in presynaptic nanoclusters
Bademosi, Adekunle T., Lauwers, Elsa, Padmanabhan, Pranesh, Odierna, Lorenzo, Chai, Ye Jin, Papadopulos, Andreas, Goodhill, Geoffrey J., Verstreken, Patrik, Van Swinderen, Bruno and Meunier, Frederic A. (2017) Nature Communications8 . doi:10.1038/ncomms13660

Subdiffractional tracking of internalized molecules reveals heterogeneous motion states of synaptic vesicles
Joensuu, Merja, Padmanabhan, Pranesh, Durisic, Nela, Bademosi, Adekunle T. D., Cooper-Williams, Elizabeth, Morrow, Isabel C., Harper, Callista B., Jung, WooRam, Parton, Robert G., Goodhill, Geoffrey J., Papadopulos, Andreas and Meunier, Frederic A. (2016)  Journal of Cell Biology215 2: 277-292. doi:10.1083/jcb.201604001

Flux of signalling endosomes undergoing axonal retrograde transport is encoded by presynaptic activity and TrkB
Wang, Tong, Martin, Sally, Nguyen, Tam H., Harper, Callista B., Gormal, Rachel S., Martinez-Marmol, Ramon, Karunanithi, Shanker, Coulson, Elizabeth J., Glass, Nick R., Cooper-White, Justin J., Van Swinderen, Bruno and Meunier, Frederic A. (2016)  Nature Communications7 . doi:10.1038/ncomms12976

The Munc18-1 domain 3a hinge-loop controls syntaxin-1A nanodomain assembly and engagement with the SNARE complex during secretory vesicle priming
Kasula, Ravikiran, Chai, Ye Jin, Bademosi, Adekunle T., Harper, Callista B., Gormal, Rachel S., Morrow, Isabel C., Hosy, Eric, Collins, Brett M., Choquet, Daniel, Papadopulos, Andreas and Meunier, Frederic A. (2016)  The Journal of Cell Biology214 7: 847-858. doi:10.1083/jcb.201508118

Munc18-1 is a molecular chaperone for α-synuclein, controlling its self-replicating aggregation
Chai, Ye Jin, Sierecki, Emma, Tomatis, Vanesa M., Gormal, Rachel S., Giles, Nichole, Morrow, Isabel C., Xia, Di, Götz, Jürgen, Parton, Robert G., Collins, Brett M., Gambin, Yann and Meunier, Frédéric A. (2016) The Journal of Cell Biology214 6: 705-718. doi:10.1083/jcb.201512016

Profiling of free fatty acids using stable isotope tagging uncovers a role for saturated fatty acids in neuroexocytosis
Narayana, Vinod K., Tomatis, Vanesa M., Wang, Tong, Kvaskoff, David and Meunier, Frederic A. (2015) Cell Chemistry and Biology22 11: 1552-1561. doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2015.09.010

Control of autophagosome axonal retrograde flux by presynaptic activity unveiled using botulinum neurotoxin type A
Wang, Tong, Martin, Sally, Papadopulos, Andreas, Harper, Callista B., Mavlyutov, Timur A., Niranjan, Dhevahi, Glass, Nick R., Cooper-White, Justin J., Sibarita, Jean-Baptiste, Choquet, Daniel, Davletov, Bazbek and Meunier, Frederic A. (2015) Journal of Neuroscience35 15: 6179-6194. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3757-14.2015

Activity-driven relaxation of the cortical actomyosin II network synchronizes Munc18-1-dependent neurosecretory vesicle docking
Papadopulos, Andreas, Gomez, Guillermo A., Martin, Sally, Jackson, Jade, Gormal, Rachel S., Keating, Damien J., Yap, Alpha S. and Meunier, Frederic A. (2015) Nature Communications6 6297: 1-11. doi:10.1038/ncomms7297

An acto-myosin II constricting ring initiates the fission of activity-dependent bulk endosomes in neurosecretory cells
Gormal, Rachel S, Nguyen, Tam H, Martin, Sally, Papadopulos, Andreas and Meunier, Frederic A (2015)  Journal of Neuroscience35 4: 1380-1389. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3228-14.2015

Researcher biography

Professor Frederic Meunier obtained his Masters degree in Neurophysiology at the Paris XI University, France in 1992 and completed his Ph.D in Neurobiology at the CNRS in Gif-sur-Yvette, France in 1996. He was the recipient of a European Biotechnology Fellowship and went on to postgraduate work at the Department of Biochemistry at Imperial College (1997-1999) and at Cancer Research UK (2000-2002) in London, UK. After a short sabbatical at the LMB-MRC in Cambridge (UK), he became a group leader at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland (Australia) in 2003. He joined the Queensland Brain Institute of the University of Queensland in 2007 and obtained an NHMRC senior research fellowship in 2009 renewed in 2014 with promotion. He became Professor in 2014 at the Queensland Brain Institute and is currently part of the Centre for Ageing Dementia Research.