Irina Sinakevitch

Prof. Strausfeld and I are working on comparative studies of neurotransmitter distribution (acetylcholine, aspartate, glutamate, GABA, dopamine, histamine and octopamine) in the optic lobes and mushroom bodies of crown dipteran and hymenopteran taxa (Phaenicia sericata, Drosophila melanogaster and Apis mellifera) and the cockroach Periplaneta Americana (Blattaria). The aim of my research is to understand how the brains of highest invertebrates function at the molecular level.

I graduated with BS degree in Physics and Mathematics of the Academic High Preparatory School of the Leningrad State University and the MS Degree in Biophysics from the Leningrad State University (Russia). During my graduate studies I used fluorescence spectroscopy to study the properties of the cell membrane of Erlich ascites carcinoma cells during the first hours after irradiation at the Central Research Institute of Roentgenology and Radiology (Ministry of Public Health in Leningrad). I completed my graduation thesis at the Institute of Cytology at the Academy of Science USSR. I studied decay curves of the intrinsic fluorescence of G-actin, F-actin, inactivated and cleaved actin using AEDANS fluorescence attached to Cys 371.

As a postgraduate student in the Academy of Science of the USSR, I had training in methods of preparing of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against the plasma protein transferrin of human and rat. These antibodies were used to study the transferrin content in hepatocyte by a cytophotometric method. During that time I mastered the purification of plasma protein, hybridoma production against soluble proteins, tests of antibodies and characterization of clone producing cells by immunochemical methods.

I received my Ph.D. in Neuroscience with honors from the University of Angers (France). During my Ph.D. thesis research I worked in close collaboration with Dr Geffard Michel who was one of the first researchers to prepare antibodies against small molecules. Under his guidance I have prepared and characterized polyclonal antibodies against the octopamine, gamma-aminobutiric acid (GABA), proctolin, FMRF- amide conjugated to carrier protein. These antibodies were used to characterize the neurosecretory functions, targets, and spatial distribution of a special group of neurons, so-called DUM neurons, in the terminal abdominal ganglion in the CNS of the cockroach. We discovered that peripheral targets of these DUM neurons are the visceral muscle of accessory glands, reproductive organs (both in male and female), heart muscle and lateral cardiac nerves.

After my Ph.D. thesis I began to develop a great interest in morphology of the insect nervous system. I had previously visited the laboratory of Invertebrate Neurophysiology of Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, where I studied a large collection of central nervous system of different insect orders, stained with methylene blue, under the guidance of Prof. Plotnikova S.I., who is one of the students of Zawarsin A. A. (1886-1945), the founder of the Russian School of morphologists.