My research interests involve investigation of proinflammatory neuroimmune and epigenetic mechanisms in animal models of developmental neurobiology and neurodegeneration, including (1) alcohol pharmacology, (2) adolescent neurodevelopment, (3) cholinergic system and neurocircuitry, and (4) Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. A major focus of the laboratory is elucidation of neuroimmune and epigenetic mechanisms underlying adolescent binge alcohol-induced disruption of basal forebrain cholinergic neurocircuitry in adulthood. A second focus of the laboratory is investigation of lasting adolescent binge drinking-induced neuroimmune priming as a novel etiological factor contributing to the onset and progression of basal forebrain neuropathology in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. Our laboratory combines ex vivo and in vivo rodent models of alcohol abuse and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease with innovative molecular techniques.
