TSRI Faculty Interests

Drug Abuse and Addiction

Baldwin, Kristin  
studies the sense of smell by genetically visualizing the neural circuits of the mouse olfactory system and uses mouse cloning and stem cell technology to investigate the molecular mechanisms that govern neural circuit formation and function throughout the nervous system.

Cline, Hollis  
studies the analysis of the activity-dependent control of cell proliferation, neuronal development and circuit formation in the visual system using gene transfer, in vivo imaging and electrophysiological techniques.

Dickerson, Tobin  
develops biochemical technologies for predicting and treating evolving disease such as influenza, hepatitis C, and cancer, high-throughput screening paradigms for protein-ligand agonists/antagonists, combating filarial parasites, and the modulation of botulinum neurotoxin.

Gruol, Donna  
examines the pathways and mechanisms involved in neuronal signaling in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), developmental expression of signaling pathways, and the neuroadaptive mechanisms through which CNS disease and drugs alter neuronal signaling and viability.

Janda, Kim  
Investigates biological catalysts, development of methods for the detection of and protection against chemical/biological warfare agents, combinatorial chemical libraries, synthesis and evaluation of enzyme inhibitors, solid-phase organic synthesis, quorum sensing within bacterial systems, lead discovery and detection strategies for tropical diseases, antibody/peptide phage display libraries, cell-penetrating peptides as therapeutic delivery vehicles, and the application of immunopharmacotherapy in the treatment of drug addiction, cancer and obesity.

Parsons, Loren  
studies neurochemical mechanisms in drug dependence with the goal of characterizing neural pathologies that may be viable targets for a pharmacotherapy of addiction; particular focus is on the central serotonin and endocannabinoid systems.