Department of Pharmacodynamics
Department of Pharmacodynamics
Joanna Peris, Ph.D
Department of Pharmacodynamics
University of Florida
PO Box 100487
Gainesville, FL 32610-0487
Office: (352) 273-7688
peris@cop.ufl.edu
PubMed Publications
Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
My lab is actively studying the neurochemical mechanisms of ethanol addiction. As part of this research, we are interested in measuring how dopaminergic and amino acid neurotransmission in brain regions highly implicated in the alcohol addiction process (e.g., nucleus accumbens, central nucleus of the amygdala) are altered in rats exhibiting high degrees of ethanol self-administration. As pioneered by Dr. R. T. Kennedy, first at Florida and now at the University of Michigan, the combination of in vivo microdialysis in awake behaving animals with on-line capillary electrophoresis separation and laser-induced fluorescence detection of neuroactive substances provides a remarkable insight into ethanol-induced changes in neurotransmission. In particular, the ability to measure second-to-second fluctuations in dopamine, taurine and other amino acids during periods of ethanol craving and subsequent self-administration will be important in helping delineate the neurochemical mechanisms underlying the addictive process. In collaboration with Dr. Neil Rowland of the UF Department of Psychology, we induce rats to willingly and reliably self-administer ethanol without food or liquid deprivation and then implant cannula into the relevant brain regions of the animals. So far, we have revealed some very novel findings about the time course of changes in taurine and dopamine in the first few minutes after both ethanol injections and self-administered ethanol in naïve and alcoholic rats.
Laboratory Staff
Dr. Alevtina Zharikova, Senior Lab manager
Dr. Zhimin Li, post-doc
James Kasper, 3rd graduate student
Collaborators and Affiliations
Dr. Robert Kennedy
Dr. Rueben Gonzales
Dr. Neil Rowland
Dr. Anatoly Martynyuk
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