Major Areas
Neuropharmacology; neuroendocrinology of ethanol intake and withdrawal; sex differences; stress 

Summary of Current Research

Currently funded research projects are examining mechanisms underlying “sensitivity” and “resilience” to the escalation in ethanol intake after intermittent traumatic stress exposure in male and female mice with a prior history of binge drinking or of no binge drinking. We observed marked sex differences in adaptations in several neurochemical systems and biological pathways following binge drinking that may confer susceptibility for a later increase in drinking behavior and in sensitivity to stress. Additionally, stress-enhanced drinking produced sexually divergent changes in stress-system proteins. One project is examining behavioral and epigenetic changes associated with “sensitivity” and “resilience” to stress-enhanced drinking after prior binge drinking. A second project is investigating how behavioral and stress system related changes in discrete neuroanatomical circuits confer “sensitivity” to stress-enhanced drinking. An understanding of mechanisms that confer “sensitivity” to traumatic stress-enhanced drinking is necessary for the development of interventions for the treatment of comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder, which likely differ in males and females.

Additional (and currently unfunded) research projects focused on the physiological significance of neurosteroid actions as positive allosteric modulators of GABA-A receptors. Behavioral, neurochemical, and electrophysiological strategies examined whether a dysregulation in GABAergic neurosteroids: a) contributed to high ethanol withdrawal or b) altered the appetitive and consummatory processes involved in ethanol self-administration. Overall goals were to evaluate the therapeutic potential of neurosteroid treatment during ethanol withdrawal as well as the influence of neurosteroids on sex differences in patterns of ethanol intake and the response to ethanol, since males and females differ in endogenous neurosteroid levels.

Previous Positions
NINDS Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of California, Irvine