
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Last Updated: 31 December 1997
My laboratory uses genetically-modified mice to study the roles that certain genes and gene products play in the expression of abnormal neuroendocrine, neurological, and psychiatric responses. Traditionally, an identification of neuroendocrine dysfunction has involved biochemical analyses of hormonal responses, those for neurological disorders have relied upon behavioral and postmortem analyses, and those for psychiatric conditions have depended upon phenomenology. The advent of gene manipulation in mice has permitted specific genes to be targeted for disruption, mutation, and/or overexpression in the whole organism or in selected regions or cells in the nervous and other systems. In this way, primary and secondary effects of a given gene manipulation can be related to various neuroendoctine, neurological, or psychiatric conditions in humans. As the Director of the Mouse Behavioral and Neuroendocrine Analysis Core Facility at Duke University (http://sites.duke.edu/mousebehavioralcore/), we have neurobehaviorally phenotyped many different lines of inbred and mutant mice for investigators at Duke and at other research institutions. As a consequence, we have helped to develop many different mouse genetic models of neuroendocrine and neuropsychiatric illness. Following the development of mouse models, we have worked with various investigators to identify the molecular and cellular basis of the neuroendocrine and/or behavioral abnormalities. We are working also with medicinal chemists and certain pharmacological/biotechnological companies to identify novel compounds that will ameliorate abnormal responses in the mutant mice. Some of these preclinical studies are now forming a basis for clinical trials in humans.
Education and Training
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. 1983
Selected Grants and Awards
- Defining the role of peripheral Adrb3 in chronic pain and inflammation
- Evaluating cell type-specific non-dopaminergics as a Parkinson's treatment paradigm
- Evaluating cell type-specific non-dopaminergics as a Parkinson's treatment paradigm
- Heat Shock Factors and Protein Misfolding Disease
- Neurovascular dysfunction in delirium superimposed on dementia
- Exploiting Dopamine Receptor Functional Selectivity as an Approach to Treat Parkinson's Symptoms
- Molecular and cellular control of injury-induced astrogenesis
- DART2.0: comprehensive cell type-specific behavioral neuropharmacology
- Muscle-macrophage constructs for skeletal muscle repair
- Targeting microbially-derived juvenile protective factors to resolve neuroinflammation and delirium
- In Vivo Epigenome Editing with CRISPR-Based Histone Acetyltransferase Transgenic Mice
- Akt/GSK-3 Signaling Cascade and the Actions of Dopamine
- Behavior and Physiology in Aging
- Behavioral and Physiology in Aging
- Bioelectronic rescue of cognitive impairment after surgery
- Developing a New Therapeutic Agent for Kabuki Syndrome
- Simultaneous and Bidirectional Chemogenetic Control of Mesolimbic and Nigrostriatal Circuits
- MECHANISTIC INSIGHTS INTO LSD ACTIONS AT 5-HT2A-SEROTONIN RECEPTORS
- Novel Adjuvants and Carriers for Opiod Vaccines
- Molecular, Synaptic, and Circuit Basis for Schizophrenia-related Phenotypes
- Developing a new therapeutic agent for Kabuki syndrome
- Molecular and circuitry mechanism underlying autism behaviors in Shank3 mouse models
- Cortico-striatal neurotransmission and compulsive motor behaviors
- Initial SHANK3 Study (Rugen E & F)
- Initial SHANK3 Study
- Linking Ciliary Biology to the Functional Annotation of Psychiatric Disorders
- Quantitative MR Microscopy of Phenotypic Biomarkers in Alzheimer's Disease
- Analysis of Shank3 Complete and Temporal and Spatial Specific Knockout Mice
- Receptor Regulation of CCK Cell Function
- IPA - Jiechun Zhou
- IPA - William Wetsel
- Fragile X Phenotypes Modulated by Altered Signaling to the Synaptic Cytoskeleton
- Linking ciliary biology to the functional annotation of psychiatric disorders
- Regulation of Cocaine Reward and Reinforcement by MeCP2
- Functional Selectivity: A Novel Approach for CNS Drug Discovery
- STIM1-dependent calcium signaling in neuronal responses to hypoxia and ischemia
- The 5-HT theory of depression tested in a naturalistic model of 5-HT deficiency
- Effect of two Rugen compounds on Novel Object Phobia in wild type (WT) and SAPAP3 KO mice
- Optimizing Lead 5-HT2C Ligands for Use in the Treatment of Schizoprenia
- Novel high-throughput screening for modifiers of TorsinA pathology
- Amphetamine-Induced Transcriptional Plasticity in Striatal GABAergic Interneurons
- Prevention of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
- Regulation of response to chronic antidepressant treatment by MeCP2
- Imaging NFkB Activity in Relation to Animal Behavior in Peripheral Neuropathy
- Novel Genetic Mouse Model to Study the Consequences of TorsinA Dysfunction
- Non-invasive Chemical Genetic Control of Neuronal Activity
- Agilent Direct Drive 9.4T MRS/MRI Console
- PTSD-like phenotype of mice lacking GIT2
- Hormonal regulation of a Ca2+/AMPK signaling pathway
- Epigenetic regulation of transcriptional repression by drugs of abuse
- Stress and Behavior in Health and Disease
- Pharmacometabolomics Research Network
- Roles of SAPAP Proteins in Synaptic Function and Compulsive-like Behavior
- Cocaine Withdrawal: A Window of Treatment Opportunity
- Collaborative & Physiological Experiments to Breed CPE KO Mice
- The Pathophysiology of CMT2A in Cell and Animal Models
- Collaborative & Physiological Experiments to Breed CPE KO Mice
- Collaborative & Physiological Experiments
- Genetic Rescue Of Pro-Lhrh Processing In Cpefat Mice
- Collaborative & Physiological Experiments of CPE K/O Mice