The Research Unit directed by Riccardo Brambilla is interested in understanding how intracellular signalling events downstream to neurotransmitter receptors are integrated within the brain to produce synaptic plasticity changes and behavioural responses. In particular we are focussing on the role of the Ras-ERK signalling pathway in the striatum, a region of the brain implicated in procedural forms of learning and memory including habit formation. We are also interested in unravelling the link between learning, intracellular signalling and the onset of a number of striatum-dependent disorders, ranging from neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s and Huntington’s) to drug addiction. To achieve these goals a wide range of techniques is used in the laboratory, including mouse molecular genetics, primary organotypic cell preparation, viral-mediated gene manipulation and behavioural analysis in transgenic mice.