Bernhard Luscher

Emeritus Professor of Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Bernhard Luscher

Research Summary

Function of GABAergic synaptic transmission in health and disease, with emphasis of stress based psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorders and mechanisms of antidepressant drug action

Huck Affiliations

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Most Recent Publications

Unconventional gapping behaviour in a kagome superconductor

Md Shafayat Hossain, Qi Zhang, Eun Sang Choi, Danilo Ratkovski, Bernhard Lüscher, Yongkai Li, Yu Xiao Jiang, Maksim Litskevich, Zi Jia Cheng, Jia Xin Yin, Tyler A. Cochran, Brian Casas, Byunghoon Kim, Xian Yang, Jinjin Liu, Yugui Yao, Alimamy F. Bangura, Zhiwei Wang, Mark H. Fischer, Titus Neupert, Luis Balicas, M. Zahid Hasan, 2025, Nature Physics

γ1 GABA<sub>A</sub> Receptors in Spinal Nociceptive Circuits

Elena Neumann, Teresa Cramer, Mario A. Acuña, Louis Scheurer, Camilla Beccarini, Bernhard Luscher, Hendrik Wildner, Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer, 2024, Journal of Neuroscience

Transcriptome signatures of the medial prefrontal cortex underlying GABAergic control of resilience to chronic stress exposure

Meiyu Shao, Julia Botvinov, Deepro Banerjee, Santhosh Girirajan, Bernhard Lüscher, 2024, Molecular Psychiatry

Sex-specific GABAergic microcircuits that switch vulnerability into resilience to stress and reverse the effects of chronic stress exposure

Tong Jiang, Mengyang Feng, Alexander Hutsell, Bernhard Lüscher, 2024, Molecular Psychiatry

GABA<sub>A</sub> receptors as targets for treating affective and cognitive symptoms of depression

Bernhard Luscher, J Maguire, U Rudolph, E Sibille, 2023, Trends in Pharmacological Sciences on p. 586-600

In silico Screening and Behavioral Validation of a Novel Peptide, LCGA-17, With Anxiolytic-Like Properties

Anton V. Malyshev, Iuliia A. Sukhanova, Alexander S. Zlobin, Vasilina R. Gedzun, Vsevolod V. Pavshintsev, Ekaterina V. Vasileva, Arthur O. Zalevsky, Igor I. Doronin, Nikita A. Mitkin, Andrey V. Golovin, Maxim L. Lovat, Georgy I. Kovalev, Yurii A. Zolotarev, Askar R. Kuchumov, Gennady A. Babkin, Bernhard Luscher, 2021, Frontiers in Neuroscience

GABA<sub>A</sub> receptors in GtoPdb v.2021.3

Bernhard Luscher, Werner Sieghart, Uwe Rudolph, John Peters, Richard Olsen, Jeremy Lambert, Tim G. Hales, Delia Belelli, 2021, IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology CITE

Antidepressant mechanisms of ketamine: Focus on GABAergic inhibition

Bernhard Luscher, Mengyang Feng, Sarah J. Jefferson, 2020, on p. 43-78

Full function of exon junction complex factor, Rbm8a, is critical for interneuron development

Colleen McSweeney, Fengping Dong, Miranda Chen, Jessica Vitale, Li Xu, Nicole Crowley, Bernhard Luscher, D Zou, Yingwei Mao, 2020, Translational Psychiatry

Disinhibition of somatostatin interneurons confers resilience to stress in male but not female mice

Sarah Jefferson, Mengyang Feng, Uree Chon, Yongsoo Kim, Bernhard Luscher, 2020, Neurobiology of Stress on p. 100238

Most-Cited Papers

Disinhibition of somatostatin-positive GABAergic interneurons results in an anxiolytic and antidepressant-like brain state

T. Fuchs, S. J. Jefferson, A. Hooper, P. H. Yee, J. Maguire, B. Luscher, 2017, Molecular Psychiatry on p. 920-930

GABAergic control of depression-related brain states

Bernhard Luscher, Thomas Fuchs, 2015, Advances in Pharmacology on p. 97-144

Bidirectional Homeostatic Regulation of a Depression-Related Brain State by Gamma-Aminobutyric Acidergic Deficits and Ketamine Treatment

Zhen Ren, Horia Pribiag, Sarah J. Jefferson, Matthew Shorey, Thomas Fuchs, David Stellwagen, Bernhard Luscher, 2016, Biological Psychiatry on p. 457-468

Brexanolone, a neurosteroid antidepressant, vindicates the gabaergic deficit hypothesis of depression and may foster resilience.

Bernhard Lüscher, Hanns Möhler, 2019, F1000Research

DHHC7 palmitoylates glucose transporter 4 (Glut4) and regulates Glut4 membrane translocation

Keyong Du, Shoko Murakami, Yingmin Sun, Casey L. Kilpatrick, Bernhard Luscher, 2017, Journal of Biological Chemistry on p. 2979-2991

Defects in dendrite and spine maturation and synaptogenesis associated with an anxious-depressive-like phenotype of GABA<sub>A</sub> receptor-deficient mice

Zhen Ren, Nadia Sahir, Shoko Murakami, Beth A. Luellen, John C. Earnheart, Rachnanjali Lal, Ju Young Kim, Hongjun Song, Bernhard Luscher, 2015, Neuropharmacology on p. 171-179

Effect of C-Terminal S-palmitoylation on D2 dopamine receptor trafficking and stability

Brittany Ebersole, Jessica Petko, Matthew Woll, Shoko Murakami, Kate Sokolina, Victoria Wong, Igor Stagljar, Bernhard Lüscher, Robert Levenson, 2015, PLoS One

GABA<sub>A</sub> receptors as targets for treating affective and cognitive symptoms of depression

Bernhard Luscher, J Maguire, U Rudolph, E Sibille, 2023, Trends in Pharmacological Sciences on p. 586-600

Dissociation of Golgi-associated DHHC-type zinc finger protein (GODZ)- and Sertoli cell gene with a zinc finger domain-β (SERZ-β)-mediated palmitoylation by loss of function analyses in knock-out mice

Casey L. Kilpatrick, Shoko Murakami, Mengyang Feng, Xia Wu, Rachnanjali Lal, Gong Chen, Keyong Du, Bernhard Luscher, 2016, Journal of Biological Chemistry on p. 27371-27386

Ketamine normalizes binge drinking-induced defects in glutamatergic synaptic transmission and ethanol drinking behavior in female but not male mice

Nicole A. Crowley, Sarah N. Magee, Mengyang Feng, Sarah J. Jefferson, Christian J. Morris, Nigel C. Dao, Dakota F. Brockway, Bernhard Luscher, 2019, Neuropharmacology on p. 35-44