# overview
I am interested in studying how gene environmental interactions shape the brain during development. In particular, I am interested in how early life exposure to psychoactive drugs, like nicotine and alcohol, permanently shape the brain which could result in long-term cognitive impairments, anxiety, and anti-social behavior.  My lab is currently focused on the effects of nicotine.  Nicotine interacts with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) which are ligand-gated, pentameric cation channels.

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1.1 Normal Biological Development And Functioning

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Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

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Attention Deficit Disorder With Hyperactivity

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Intercellular Signaling Peptides And Proteins

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center - (Richmond, Virginia, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of Bremen - (Bremen, Germany)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of Bremen - (Bremen, Germany)

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University of California, Irvine - (Irvine, California, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of Florida - (Gainesville, Florida, United States)

# publications[].label
Opioid receptor and peptide mRNA expression in proliferative zones of fetal rat central nervous system.

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Neonatal nicotine exposure increases excitatory synaptic transmission and attenuates nicotine-stimulated GABA release in the adult rat hippocampus.

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Evaluation of Chronic Oral Nicotine Treatment in Food Consumption, Body Weight and [125I] Epibatidine Binding in Adult Mice

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Expression of alpha2A adrenoceptors during rat neocortical development.

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Chapter 13 Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the autonomic nervous system

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Effects of paraformaldehyde fixation on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor binding in adult and developing rat brain sections.

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Distribution of alpha2-adrenoceptor mRNAs in the rat lumbar spinal cord in normal and axotomized rats.

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Acute nicotine activates c-fos and activity-regulated cytoskeletal associated protein mRNA expression in limbic brain areas involved in the central stress-response in rat pups during a period of hypo-responsiveness to stress.

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Opposing actions of ethanol and nicotine on microRNAs are mediated by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in fetal cerebral cortical-derived neural progenitor cells.

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Neuregulin and dopamine modulation of hippocampal gamma oscillations is dependent on dopamine D4 receptors.

# publications[].publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

# publications[].label
Molecular, physiological and behavioral characterization of the heterozygous Df[h15q13]/+ mouse model associated with the human 15q13.3 microdeletion syndrome.

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42 and 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor binding predicts choice preference in two cost benefit decision-making tasks.

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Expression of opioid peptides and receptors in striatum and substantia nigra during rat brain development.

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Effects of chronic neonatal nicotine exposure on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor binding, cell death and morphology in hippocampus and cerebellum.

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VARENICLINE ENHANCES GABAERGIC SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION AND AMELIORATES ETHANOL-INDUCED DEFICITS IN GABAERGIC SIGNALING IN BASAL FOREBRAIN NEURONS

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Alpha2B adrenoceptor mRNA expression during rat brain development.

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Evaluating the suitability of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antibodies for standard immunodetection procedures.

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VARENICLINE MODULATES GABAERGIC SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION AND MITIGATES ETHANOL-INDUCED DEFICITS IN GABAERGIC SIGNALING IN BASAL FOREBRAIN NEURONS

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Quantitative light microscopic autoradiography of alpha 2-adrenergic radioligand binding sites.

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Regulated expression of neuronal SIRT1 and related genes by aging and neuronal 2-containing nicotinic cholinergic receptors.

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Glial regulation of alpha 7-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expression in cultured rat cortical neurons.

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Chronic neonatal nicotine increases anxiety but does not impair cognition in adult rats.

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Quantitative Light Microscopic Autoradiography of 2-Adrenergic Radioligand Binding Sites

# publications[].label
Development of the alpha7 nicotinic cholinergic receptor in rat hippocampal formation.

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Expression of alpha 2 adrenoceptors during rat brain development--II. Alpha 2C messenger RNA expression and [3H]rauwolscine binding.

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Chronic nicotine induces growth retardation in neonatal rat pups.

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Co-expression of alpha7 and beta2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit mRNAs within rat brain cholinergic neurons.

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New functional handle for use as a self-reporting contrast and delivery agent in nanomedicine.

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Combined Radioactive and Nonradioactive Double In Situ Hybridization (DISH)

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Highly sensitive radioactive in situ hybridization using full length hydrolyzed riboprobes to detect alpha 2 adrenoceptor subtype mRNAs in adult and developing rat brain.

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EFFECTS OF SEX AND CHRONIC NEONATAL NICOTINE TREATMENT ON NA(2+)/K+/CL- CO-TRANSPORTER 1, K+/CL- CO-TRANSPORTER 2, BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR, NMDA RECEPTOR SUBUNIT 2A AND NMDA RECEPTOR SUBUNIT 2B MRNA EXPRESSION IN THE POSTNATAL RAT HIPPOCAMPUS (vol 225, pg 105, 2012)

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Smoking during pregnancy: lessons learned from epidemiological studies and experimental studies using animal models.

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Chronic neonatal nicotine upregulates heteromeric nicotinic acetylcholine receptor binding without change in subunit mRNA expression.

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Isolation and characterization of mouse monoclonal antibodies against a human vascular endothelial cell-specific antigen.

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Central and peripheral immune responses to low-dose lipopolysaccharide in a mouse model of the 15q13.3 microdeletion.

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Chronic neonatal nicotine exposure increases excitation in the young adult rat hippocampus in a sex-dependent manner.

# publications[].label
Expression of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and subunit messenger RNAs in the enteric nervous system of the neonatal rat.

# publications[].label
117 Alpha2A adrenoceptor expression during neocortical development

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Effects of developmental nicotine exposure in rats on decision-making in adulthood.

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Expression of alpha5 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit mRNA during hippocampal and cortical development.

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Codistribution of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit alpha3 and beta4 mRNAs during rat brain development.

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Peripheral immune challenges elicit differential up-regulation of hippocampal cytokine and chemokine mRNA expression in a mouse model of the 15q13.3 microdeletion syndrome.

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Expression of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit mRNAs in rat hippocampal GABAergic interneurons.

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Activation of immediate early genes by nicotine after chronic neonatal nicotine exposure in brain areas involved in stress and anxiety responses.

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Expression of Npas4 mRNA in Telencephalic Areas of Adult and Postnatal Mouse Brain.

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Effects of sex and chronic neonatal nicotine treatment on Na/K/Cl co-transporter 1, K/Cl co-transporter 2, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, NMDA receptor subunit 2A and NMDA receptor subunit 2B mRNA expression in the postnatal rat hippocampus.

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Long-term consequences of maternal smoking and developmental chronic nicotine exposure.

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Expression of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit mRNAs within midbrain dopamine neurons.

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Varenicline and nicotine enhance GABAergic synaptic transmission in rat CA1 hippocampal and medial septum/diagonal band neurons.

# publications[].label
Distribution of 7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Subunit mRNA in the Developing Mouse.

# publications[].label
Expression of alpha 2 adrenoceptors during rat brain development--I. Alpha 2A messenger RNA expression.

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Postnatal expression of alpha2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit mRNA in developing cortex and hippocampus.

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Chronic neonatal nicotine exposure increases mRNA expression of neurotrophic factors in the postnatal rat hippocampus.

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Signal intensities of radiolabeled cRNA probes used alone or in combination with non-isotopic in situ hybridization histochemistry.

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ETHANOL-RESPONSIVE FETAL NEURAL STEM CELL MIRNAS ARE COMMON TARGETS FOR FETAL TERATOGENS

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Nicotine regulates mRNA expression of feeding peptides in the arcuate nucleus in neonatal rat pups.

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Distribution and regulation of alpha(2)-adrenoceptors in rat dorsal root ganglia.

# researcherOn[].label
Optogenetic Approaches to Study Complex Neuronal Circuits During Cognitive Aging

# researcherOn[].awardedBy.label
National Institutes of Health - (Bethesda, Maryland, United States)

# streetAddress
Texas A&M Health Science Center; Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics; 1359 TAMUS

# inTheNews[].label
US Survey Reveals Doctors' Misconceptions About Nicotine Risks

# etdChairOf[].label
Huang, Pei-San (2012-07). Effects of Chronic Nicotine Exposure and Lack of High Affinity Nicotinic Receptors on Cortico-Hippocampal Areas in the Aging Mouse Brain. Doctoral Dissertation.