Behavioral Neuroscience Program Graduate Students

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Jessica Babb

Research Interests: The Campeau/Day lab studies the neuroanatomical basis of stress responsiveness. Specifically, I study how hormones can influence reaction to both acute and chronic stress in female rats. I am also interested in determining other factors that can influence stress responsiveness in female rodents, such as exercise. Ultimately, my long-term goal is to understand the gender differences seen in humans coping with stress, in both healthy and clinical populations.

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Alex Benison

Research Interests: Faster than real-time PCR, More powerful than a students T-test, Able to leap tall workbenches in a single bound, Look, in that lab! It's a nerd! It's a geek! It's Scienceman! Yes. It's Scienceman, strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Scienceman, who can change the course of scientific reason, pull pipettes with his bare hands, and who, disguised as Alex Benison, mild mannered graduate student at the University of Colorado, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the scientific discovery. His research is centered on characterizing the secondary sensory areas of the brain, both anatomically, physiologically and functionally.

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Joe Biedenkapp

Research Interests:At the most basic level my interests lie in understanding the mechanisms by which the brain learns and remembers. Currently, my research program focuses on two specific areas in the field of memory research: 1) Memory Reconsolidation and 2) Systems Consolidation. The first project is examining the idea that the retrieval of a stored memory returns it to labile state that requires de novo protein synthesis to be stored again in the long term. The second project seeks to better understand the brain systems and processes involved in the storage and retrieval of long-term hippocampus-dependent memories.

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Tim Chapman

Research Interests: I am currently studying the role of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and other molecules in the continuous synaptic plasticity that occurs in the hippocampus using extracellular field recordings and small drug manipulation.

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Adam Francis

Research Interests: I am interested in neural processes underlying hormonal stress responses. I am particularly interested in glucocorticoid negative feeedback.

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Amy Hein

Research Interests: I am interested in understanding the vulnerabilities of the brain in both development and old age, with particular attention to the interaction between the immune system and memory. For example, glial 'priming' in old aged rats leads to memory impairments following immune challenge. Specifically, I am studying the mechanisms leading to glial priming and how glial activation leads to memory impairments.

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Kenneth Kubala

Research Interests:

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Susannah Lewis

Research Interests: My research interests focus on the mechanisms for enhanced pain following morphine treatment. I am particularly interested in the activatoin of glial cells by morphine and the role these cells play in morphine-induced pain.

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Kristina McFadden

Research Interests: I am interested in the effects of brain insult on human functionality, and in ways to improve resulting impairment. Our lab is currently investigating a possible role for complementary and alternative medicine in stroke recovery.

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Chad Osterlund

Research Interests: Stress neurobiology particularly in neurobiological basis of psychological stress and subsequent adaptations.

Quote: “Abide” THE BIG LEBOWSKI

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Krista Rodgers

Research Interests: My current research focuses on the temporal synchronization of neuronal responses and feature analysis. Coincidence detection is critical for feature analysis in visual and auditory cortex. My research explores somatosensory cortex and its possible role in processing spatial features based on coincidence detection. Other research interests include multisensory integration, epilepsy (chronic and acute seizure models) and oscillatory activity (the c ellular events, neural generation, functional significance and cortical network generation underlying oscillatory activity).

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Robert Rozeske II

Research Interests: My research uses a systems level approach to determine how prior experience with controllable/uncontrollable stressors interact with drug reward. Currently, the focus of my research investigates how changes in the medial prefrontal cortex during controllable/uncontrollable stressors can modulate the mesolimbic reward system.

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Sarah Sasse

Research Interests: The main focus of the Campeau-Day laboratory is the neurobiology of chronic, psychological stress. We are all aware of the deleterious effects that chronic stress can have on our physical and mental well-being, yet very little is understood concerning the biological mechanisms by which this interaction is taking place. My specific interests include modes of adaptation to chronic psychological stress, how and where in the brain these protective changes may be taking place, and how and why this adaptation may be facilitated by voluntary physical exercise.

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Evan Sloane

Research Interests: My research interests lie in the area of non-viral gene therapy approaches to treat chronic pain and other diseases of the central nervous system. I am also interested in the interaction of immunology and gene therapy design.

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Brittany Thompson

Research Interests: Research interests: My research focuses on the effect of controllable and uncontrollable stress on an organism and brain circuitry. Current research involves the role of serotonin in anxiety.

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Marc Weinberg

Research Interests: I am interested in the role of the prefrontal cortex in adaptation to psychological stress. I rely on in-vivo drug infusion, plasma hormone immunoassay, and in-situ hybridization histochemistry to detect central nervous system 'activation' and 'habituation' One possibility is that the prefrontal cortex provides 'top-down' processing of stress stimuli to modulate the organism's stress response.

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