March 06

Research Seminar: “Early Life Stress: Impact on Neural Circuits Related to Affective State and Drug Reward”

Presented by

Elena Chartoff, PhD
Associate Professor, Psychiatry & Neuroscience
Harvard Medical School
Director, Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior Laboratory
Director, Education & Training,
Basic Neuroscience Division, McLean Hospital

Talk Summary:

I will discuss two projects related to impacts of early life stress. First, we model prenatal opioid exposure by having pregnant rats self-administer the prescription opioid oxycodone. We show physiological deficits after birth, reduced sensitivity to oxycodone in adulthood, and alterations in dopamine receptor signaling. Second, we model social stress in adolescent rats using social isolation. Isolated rats have higher anxiety-like behavior and a unique, sex-dependent set of microRNA expression in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis as adults. Our findings demonstrate long-lasting effects of early life stress that could serve as intervention targets for treatments that mitigate psychopathologies.

About the Speaker:

Elena Chartoff received her BS in biology from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and her PhD in neurobiology and behavior from the University of Washington in Seattle. As a post-doctoral fellow in Bill Carlezon's laboratory at McLean Hospital, she studied the neurobiological mechanisms underlying addiction and depression. Currently Elena is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior Laboratory at McLean Hospital, where her lab researches addiction, with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms that underlie drug vulnerability, withdrawal and relapse.

Hosted by

Allison Knoll, PhD
Assistant Professor of Research Pediatrics
Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California

Information

Lunch will be provided to seminar guests; first come, first served

Help us save plastic! Bring your own water bottles. Water will be available to fill your bottles.

Brought to you by TSRI Office of Training, Education, Career Planning & Development (TECPAD)

RSVP is required to tecpad@chla.usc.edu

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