Dan Larhammar
Ph.D., Principal Investigator,Professor, Doctoral Supervisor
Email: danlarhammar@@gdiist.cn
Personal Profile
Dan Larhammar received his PhD degree in medical science at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, in 1984. He then studied neuropeptide Y (NPY), a multifunctional neuropeptide with strong stimulatory effect on appetite. After one year as visiting scientist at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California, his work focused on cloning and molecular pharmacology of receptors for NPY. His laboratory discovered several NPY receptors. His research then broadened to exploration of the molecular evolution of eyes in vertebrates and the origin of rods and cones in the retina. Numerous neurotransmitters and hormones and their receptors have been investigated with regard to their evolution in vertebrates. One project concerned the dopamine receptors involved in Parkinson's disease. Since several years he studies the molecular mechanisms for learning and long-term memory. Key players in this machinery are glutamate receptors of the AMPA and NMDA families and several proteins that regulate or are affected by these.
Dan Larhammar was appointed professor of molecular cell biology in the Faculty of Medicine at Uppsala University in 1994. He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2007 and served as president of the Academy 2018-2022. He is a fellow of the International Science Council and a member of the European Academy. He has a strong interest in the distinction of science versus pseudoscience and has also investigated research fraud.
Laboratory of Memory and Cognition
The research is pursued along two lines to explore the mechanisms of learning and memory. One line is focused on different types of glutamate receptors and their intricate regulation by several proteins. Genetically modified zebrafish are generated for behavioural studies of learning and long-term memory. The other line of research aims to resolve the evolution of important neuronal gene families in vertebrates, especially in relation to the genome doublings at the origin of vertebrates.
Zebrafish reporter gene constructs and single-cell RNA-seq analyses will identify cell populations and genes involved in long-term memory. Spatial transcriptomic analyses will identify key molecules expressed in the brain regions relevant to learning and memory. Molecular interactions between proteins will be studied using cultured cells.
Selected recent publications（All publications in the web https://www.uu.se/en/contact-and-organisation/staff?query=N96-4750）
199. Morini, M., Bergqvist, C. A., Asturiano, J. F., Dufour, S., and Larhammar, D. Evolution in metazoans of the TRPM channel family involves multiple gains and losses of genes and domains. Mol. Biol. Evol., in press (2026).
198. Kahlous, N. A.#, Rinne, M. K.#, Zhang, X#., Li, Y., Chen, Y., Motso, A., Gao, K., Bergqvist, C., Sheng, H., Wang, Y., Cabeza de Vaca, I., Díaz-Holguín, A., Ullmann, P., Bengtsson, T., Lauschke, V. M., Kukkonen, J. P., Delemotte, L., Wright, S. C., Liu, X., Larhammar, D., and Carlsson, J. Molecular mechanisms of chemical messenger selectivity in G protein-coupled receptors. Nature Communications, in press (2026).
