The laboratory is located on the 6th floor of the Center for Health Science (CHS) at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). We are part of the Department of Neurobiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. The Department focuses its research activities on small systems neuroscience.

The Schweizer laboratory uses electrophysiological and optical tools to investigate the dynamic molecular mechanisms underlying neurotransmitter release. Currently we are focusing on neurotransmitter release from vestibular hair cells and use cell membrane capacitance measurements to quantify exocytosis. We are using acute and cultured brain slices and cultured neurons to investigate how neurotransmitter release is regulated in the short term (short-term plasticity) and how synaptic vesicles can move between physiologically distinct pools. We are testing the role played in release by proteins and pathways thought to be involved in neurodegenerative diseases and have most recently focused on protein ubiquitination as a possible regulator of presynaptic release mechanisms.