Research news
Happy summer from DNBR!
We are pleased to welcome several new faculty members to our Division (and to the Department). In January, Dr. Amy Kohtz joined DNBR as an Assistant Professor. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Gary Aston-Jones at Rutgers University’s Brain Health Institute. Amy is building a research program that is focused on diverse aspects of sex differences, memory, and addiction/substance use disorders. As of July, Drs. Harry Pantazopoulos and Barbara Gisabella also will join DNBR. Harry and Barbara have been at UMMC since 2019 as Assistant Professors in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomical Sciences. Barbara’s research interests include sleep, memory, synaptic plasticity, PTSD and aging. Harry’s research program investigates the interplay between circadian rhythms, psychiatric disorders, and the extracellular matrix. Each of these new division members brings complementary research interests and technical expertise to our existing cadre of faculty. We are excited to have them on board and look forward to their contributions to DNBR and the Department!
In May, DNBR finally was able to celebrate the retirements of Drs. Grazyna Rajkowska and Jim Shaffery with a fun and delicious dinner at Walker’s Drive In. We congratulate Grazyna and Jim on being granted Professor Emeritus status. And we are so glad that they continue to contribute to various aspects of UMMC, so we can continue to see them around campus. We wish them all the best!
DNBR was well represented at the 84th annual scientific meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, held in Minneapolis, where both faculty and students presented their research!
Lastly, we just want to “toot the horns” of several of our graduate student trainees. Loc Pham and Shelley Rae Edwards (primary mentor: Kevin Freeman) recently received Notices of Award for their individual NRSA grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Tanya Pareek (primary mentor: James Rowlett) and William Doyle (primary mentor: Sally Huskinson) shined at the recent annual meeting of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences. Tanya won first prize for Graduate Oral Presentations in the Neuroscience Division (also pictured is PIN student John Aaron Howell, primary mentor: Lee Bidwell, Neurology, who placed second for his oral presentation) and William placed third for his poster presentation. Congratulations!
PUBLICATIONS:
Beale EE, Overholser J, Gomez S, Brannam S, Stockmeier CA (2022) The path not taken: Distinguishing individuals who die by suicide from those who die by natural causes despite a shared history of suicide attempt. J Clin Psychol 78:526-543
Berro LF, Overton JS, Rowlett JK (2022) Methamphetamine-induced sleep impairments and subsequent slow-wave and rapid eye movement sleep rebound in male rhesus monkeys. Front Neurosci 16:866971
Berro LF, Pareek T, Reeves-Darby J, Andersen ML, Howell LL, Platt DM, Rowlett JK (2021) Influence of pair-housing on sleep parameters evaluated with actigraphy in female rhesus monkeys. J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci 61:165-172
Berro LF, Roehrs T (2022) Catching up on sleep: Recent evidence on the role of sleep in substance use disorders. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 213:173330
Chandley MJ, Szebeni A, Szebeni K, Wang-Heaton H, Garst J, Stockmeier CA, Lewis NH, Prdway GA (2022) Markers of elevated oxidative stress in oligodendrocytes captured from the brainstem and occipital cortex in major depressive disorder and suicide. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 117:110559
Gardea-Resendez M, Taylor-Desir MJ, Romo-Nava F, Bond D, Vallender EJ, Cuellar-Barboza AB, Prieto ML, Nunez N, Veldic M, Ozerdem A, Singh B, Markota M, Colby CL, Coombes BJ, Biernacka JM, McElroy SL, Frye MA (2022) Clinical phenotype of tardive dyskinesia in bipolar disorder. J Clin Psychopharmacol 42:159-162
Gipson CD, Soto PL, Calipari ES, Platt DM, Salamone JD, Bevins RA (2022) Using complex behavior to understand brain mechanisms in health and disease. J Exp Anal Behav 117:275-278
Huskinson SL, Platt DM, Zamarripa CA, Dunaway K, Brasfield M, Prisinzano TE, Blough BE, Freeman KB (2022) The G-protein biased kappa opioid agonists, triazole 1.1 and nalfurafine, produce non-uniform behavioral effects in male rhesus monkeys. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 217:173394
Jarmolowicz DP, Greer BD, Killeen PR, Huskinson SL (2022) Applied quantitative analysis of behavior: What it is, and why we care—Introduction to the Special Section. Perspect Behav Sci 44:503-516
Kelly CA, Freeman KB, Schumacher JA (2022) Treatment-resistant depression with anhedonia: Integrating clinical and preclinical approaches to investigate distinct phenotypes. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 136:104578
Miguel-Hidalgo JJ (2022) Astroglia in the vulnerability to and maintenance of stress-mediated neuropathology and depression. Front Cell Neurosci 16:869779
Miguel-Hidalgo JJ (2022) Role of stress-related glucocorticoid changes in astrocyte-oligodendrocyte interactions that regulate myelin production and maintenance. Histol Histopathol 2:18476
Miguel-Hidalgo JJ, Pang Y (2022) Myelination. In Neuroscience in the 21st century. Rubenstein, Volkow and Pfaff, editors. Springer, New York.
Taylor-Desir MJ, Balls-Berry JE, McElroy SL, Bond DJ, Vallender EJ, Ladner M, Coombes BJ, Jackson L, Arceo D, Caples FV, Colby C, Patten CA, Biernacka JM, Frye MA (2022) Comparison of demographic and clinical features of bipolar disorder in persons of African and European ancestry. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities in press
Zamarripa CA, Doyle WS, Freeman KB, Rowlett JK, Huskinson SL (2021) Choice between food and cocaine reinforcers under fixed and variable schedules in female and male rhesus monkeys. Exp Clin Psychopharm in press