Leader, Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience Laboratory
Southern Research
2000 Ninth Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35205
205-581-2864
E-mail: braunewell@sri.org
Dr. Braunewell obtained his PhD in Biology in 1993 at the Institute for Neurobiology (Prof. M. Schachner) from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland and received further postdoctoral research training at the Department for Neurochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Prof. E.D. Gundelfinger), Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg, Germany.
In 1998 Dr. Braunewell became head of the Signal Transduction Research Group at the Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology, and he was Lecturer (Dr. sc. nat. habil) in Biochemistry at the Medical Faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. In 2000 Dr. Braunewell headed the Signal Transduction Research Group at the Neuroscience Research Center (NWFZ) of the Charité, Berlin. In 2001 he became Lecturer and in 2007 Professor of Physiology at the Johannes Müller-Institute, Medical Faculty, Charité, Humboldt University Berlin.
Dr. Braunewell joined Southern Research in 2006 where he is currently an independent PI in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department of the Drug Discovery Division. He is also faculty of the newly constituted Comprehensive Neuroscience Center (CNC) at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Throughout his research career, Dr. Braunewell has focused on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying brain function. In the last decade, he became an expert on neuronal calcium signaling and neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) proteins. Since 1998 his research has been funded by eighteen investigator-initiated research grants from local and federal funding agencies in Germany. His work has led to more than 40 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, five book chapters and five reviews. Through these efforts Dr. Braunewell has gained world-wide recognition as an expert on NCS proteins and serves as referee for international funding agencies and peer-reviewed journals. He also serves on the Editorial Board of CBP, a Landes Bioscience journal specializing in calcium-binding proteins.
Confocal image showing the immunocytochemical localization of the neuronal calcium sensor protein VILIP-1 (red) and the trans-Golgi marker syntaxin- 6 (green) in plasma and Golgi membranes of cultured hippocampal neurons following treatment with glutamate.
Courtesy, with permission:
Christina Spilker, Thomas Dresbach, and Karl-Heinz Braunewell, 2002, Journal of Neuroscience 22: 7331-7339 (Society for Neuroscience, Preliminary programs, 2006 and 2007).
Calcium plays a key role in cellular signaling processes such as regulation of enzymatic activities and neurotransmitter release, in neuronal plasticity and gene expression. Calcium-binding proteins have an important role as mediators of calcium signals in cellular signaling pathways in physiological as well as in pathophysiological processes of the central nervous system. The investigation of intracellular neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) proteins, such as VILIP-1, -2, -3, hippocalcin, neurocalcin and NCS-1 may gain new insights into the physiology and pathophysiology of calcium signaling processes in the brain. (For review, see Braunewell 2006 TiPS. 26:345-351.)
The general goal in Dr. Braunewell's research lab is to understand calcium-dependent signaling mechanisms at the molecular and cellular level, as well as to clarify the role of calcium-dependent signaling in disease. To reach this goal, a broad interdisciplinary approach - including biochemical, molecular biology, cell culture, immunohistochemical as well as electrophysiological methods is employed, and various collaborations with national and international colleagues have been established. The future goal will be to study the function of NCS proteins in synaptic plasticity and in neurological and psychiatrical disorders, ranging from Alzheimer`s disease to schizophrenia. An interesting facet is the investigation of the role of NCS proteins for invasiveness of brain tumors.
At Southern Research Dr. Braunewell is actively involved in drug discovery for targets in brain cancer and several neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease, addiction, epilepsy, pain and schizophrenia.