Department of Neuroscience

Research Abstract

Since its inception, Neuroscience has focused on neurons as the single most relevant cellular component of the nervous system for understanding its inner workings. Yet, parts of the mammalian brain are only comprised of 10-20% of neurons. Our research explores the role played by the remaining 80-90% of “non-neuronal” cells, called glial cells, in brain function. We focus on astrocytes, a sub-class of glial cells that has the ability to respond to different forms of brain activity and release signaling molecules that influence neuronal function. The goal of the Papouin lab is to understand how astrocytes contribute to information processing in the brain, at the molecular scale, circuit level, and in behaving animals... read more

Selected Publications

• Henneberger C., Papouin T., Oliet S.H.R., Rusakov D.A. (2010). Long-term potentiation depends on release of D-serine from astrocytes. Nature. 463(7278):232-6.
• Papouin T., Ladépêche L., Ruel J., Sacchi S., Labasque M., Hanini M., Groc L., Pollegioni L., Mothet J.P., Oliet S.H.R.. (2012). Synaptic and extrasynaptic NMDA receptors are gated by different endogenous coagonists. Cell. 150, 633-46.
• Papouin T., Oliet S.H.R. (2014). Organization, control and function of extrasynaptic NMDA receptors. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 369:20130601. Review
• Papouin T., & Oliet S.H.R. (2016) “Synaptic and extra-synaptic NMDARs in the CNS”, The Receptors, Vol 30: The NMDA Receptor. Springer Nature Publishing Company. ISBN 978-3-319-49793-8. Book Chapter
• Papouin T., Dunphy J., Tolman M., Foley J.C., Haydon P.G. (2017). Astrocytic control of synaptic function. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 372, 20160154. pii: 20160154. Review
• Papouin T., Dunphy J., Tolman M., Dineley K, and Haydon P.G. (2017). Septal cholinergic neuromodulation tunes the astrocyte-dependent gating of hippocampal NMDA receptors to wakefulness. Neuron. 94, 1-15.
• Papouin T., Henneberger C., Rusakov D.A., and Oliet S.H.R. (2017). Astroglial versus neuronal D-serine: fact checking. Trends in Neuroscience. 40, 517-520. Review
• *Ferreira J.S., *Papouin T., Ladépêche L., Yao A., Langlais V.C., Bouchet D., Dulong J., Mothet J.P., Sacchi S., Pollegioni L., Paoletti P., Oliet S.H.R. and Groc L. (2017). Co-agonists differentially tune GluN2B-NMDA receptor trafficking at hippocampal synapses. eLife. 6:e25492
• Robin L.M., Oliveira da Cruz J.F., Langlais V.C., Martin-Fernandez M., Metna-Laurent M., Busquets-Garcia A., Bellocchio L., Soria-Gomez E., Papouin T., Varilh M., Sherwood M.W., Belluomo I., Balcells G., Matias I., Bosier, B., Drago F., Van Eeckhaut A., Smolders I., Georges F., Araque A., Panatier A., Oliet S.H.R., and Marsicano G. (2018). Astroglial CB1 Receptors Determine Synaptic D-Serine Availability to Enable Recognition Memory. Neuron. 98, 1-10

For a complete list of Dr. Papouin's publications, click here.