Dr. Yulong Li published a paper on Cell

Dopamine (DA) is a central monoamine neurotransmitter involved in many physiological and pathological processes. A longstanding yet largely unmet goal is to measure DA changes reliably and specifically with high spatiotemporal precision, particularly in animals executing complex behaviors. Here we report the development of genetically-encoded GPCR-Activation-Based-DA (GRAB_DA) sensors that enable these measurements. In response to extracellular DA, GRAB_DA sensors exhibit large fluorescence increases (ΔF/F₀ ~90%) with subcellular resolution, sub-second kinetics, nanomolar to sub-micromolar affinities, and excellent molecular specificity. GRAB_DA sensors can resolve a-single-electrical-stimulus evoked DA release in mouse brain slices, and detect endogenous DA release in living flies, fish, and mice. In freely-behaving mice, GRAB_DA sensors readily report optogenetically elicited nigrostriatal DA release and depict dynamic mesoaccumbens DA signaling during Pavlovian conditioning or during sexual behaviors. Thus, GRAB_DA sensors enable spatiotemporally precise measurements of DA dynamics in a variety of model organisms while exhibiting complex behaviors.

Original link: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)30845-6