ABOUT ME & MY RESEARCH
Postdoctoral Fellow
Lab of Glenn M. Toney, PhD
Department of Cellular & Integrative Physiology, School of Medicine
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Funding:
Current: American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship
20POST25030003
*Top score of all applicants in 2020 (0.11%)
Former: National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
4 T32 HL 007446-35
Current projects:
1) Investigation of Neural Mechanisms Underlying Seeking Behavior
Goal: Identify underlying mechanisms involved in sodium-induced cross-sensitization of reward systems and seeking behaviors
Public health relevance: Salt is perhaps the most frequently abused substance in modern society. Because emerging evidence implicates the endogenous opioid system in salt appetite and need-free sodium intake, an unmet need exists for the identification of opioid-mediated mechanisms that prime reward circuits to support salt addiction. This project will use the primal need that mammals have for salt as a novel means to access and reinforce the circuit elements, as well as neurochemical and synaptic mechanisms, that promote addiction and seeking behavior for a variety of rewarding substances, especially illicit drugs.
2) Sleep Apnea & Opioid-induced Respiratory Complications
Goal: Investigate neurocircuitry underlying the propagation of sleep apnea-related opioid-induced respiratory depression
Public health relevance: There is an important interrelationship between opioids, sleep apnea, and overdose. Given that chronic opioid use dose-dependently increases sleep apnea in humans and that sleep apnea increases opioid sensitivity, patients with sleep apnea have a high risk in the clinic for opioid-induced respiratory depression and subsequent overdose. Thus, an unmet need exists to identify the neurocircuitry that underlies the propagation of sleep apnea-related opioid-induced respiratory complications. Understanding these neurochemical and synaptic mechanisms may lead to identification of safer therapeutic options for this patient population.
EDUCATION
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Signaling Mechanisms
Protein-protein interactions involved in GPCR signal cascades
May 2017 - Degree Conferral
March 2017 - Dissertation Defense
University of Texas Health Science Center
at San Antonio
Ph.D. Pharmacology - Neuroscience Track
Honors: Cum Laude
Opioid-mediated Analgesia
Peripheral mechanisms of opioid receptor signaling that underlie analgesic and therapeutic effects
Opioid-related Drug Abuse
Molecular mechanisms underlying neural circuits responsible for seeking and abuse behaviors
December 2010
Texas Woman's University
Degrees Obtained
B.S. Biochemistry
B.S. Nutrition
Minor General Science
Honors: Magna Cum Laude