Previous Positions

Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla

Junior Research Fellow, Institute of Normal Physiology, Moscow, USSR

Research Interests

My laboratory aims to understand mechanisms underlying alcohol and substance use disorders. Alcohol use in particular contributes to 95,000 deaths annually in the United States making our focus on mechanisms of alcohol use disorder an important endeavor. My research includes a wide variety of rodent models and technologies in which we have expertise, including behavioral methodologies (stress and learning paradigms, rodent alcohol self-administration, partner preference, dominance), molecular techniques (in situ hybridization, RT-qPCR, immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, receptor binding) and site-specific manipulations (intracranial injections, lesions, viral shRNA and chemogenetics). Using these various approaches my lab was among the first to identify neural substrates of amnestic effects of acute alcohol and shed light on the role of stress response-regulating peptides in excessive alcohol use and methamphetamine intake and sensitivity. We also have developed novel animal models to investigate mechanisms of social aspects of alcohol use disorder. Among them, we have discovered the phenomenon of social transfer of pain and have adapted the use of prairie voles to examine mechanisms underlying facilitating and inhibitory effects of social environment of alcohol drinking, effects of single parenting on alcohol drinking, effects of alcohol on social bonding. Our current experiments focus on finding rational approaches for the treatment of alcohol use disorder.

Animal model statement

Our research involves rodents. The wellbeing of animals is important to us. We regard the use of non-human animals in research as a symbiosis between species. In the wild, small rodents suffer from infections, hunger, dehydration, exposure and constant fear of predation. These conditions result in extensive mortality, such that less than one third of them survive past the age of adolescence. In reality, the survival rates of mice and prairie voles are even less because, as agricultural pests, they also face species-directed extermination. In contrast, our laboratory colonies provide rodents with pathogen-free conditions, constant access to food and water, and ability to reproduce. Not surprisingly, the average age of rodents in the lab exceeds age estimates in the wild. We never use more animals than what is needed to produce clinically relevant results. The one or two conditions that can cause temporary distress, to which we expose animals for the purpose of our experiments, do not exceed the continued distress rodents face in the wild. For more reading on this subject, we recommend H.H. Hefner “The symbiotic nature of animal research” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, v.43: 128-139.

Land acknowledgement and diversity statement

My laboratory at OHSU is located on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tumwater, Watlala bands of the Chinook, the Tualatin Kalapuya and other indigenous nations of the Nch’i Wana (Columbia River). I acknowledge them and recognize that I am able to live and do my work here because of the sacrifices forced upon them. As an immigrant by necessity, I am humbly committed to providing a respectful, diverse and inclusive environment for all members of our community.