Abstract
Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter associated with the pleasure center and responsible for maintaining circadian rhythm. The human dopamine transporter (HDAT) is essential for regulating the presence of dopamine in the synaptic cleft via reuptake into the presynaptic neuron. Using an electrochemical assay to determine rate of reuptake, the goal of this project was to quantify the activity of the HDAT protein both in the presence and absence of inhibitors. Using data from the assay, a michaelis-menten plot was used to determine Ka and Vmax for comparison to known values. In future projects, these values will be used to compare protein activity in the presence of analogs of Modafinil, a narcolepsy drug that selectively inhibits HDAT activity.
