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The Psychopharmacology Laboratory at American University focuses on a variety of research issues, all of which have animal models of drug use and abuse as their basis. We examine the genetic and epigenetic components of drug intake, prenatal and adolescent drug exposure, drug interactions, the neuropharmacological mediation of drug effects, the molecular-level biochemical mechanisms of neuroplasticity induced by chronic drug administration and the interaction of the reinforcing and aversive effects underlying drug acceptability.

These assessments are made through a variety of animal behavioral models, including drug self-administration, conditioned place preference and aversion, conditioned taste aversion, schedule-controlled responding, drug discrimination learning, locomotor testing and optogenetic manipulation. Additionally, we utilize several histological assays, such as fluorescence microscopy, qPCR, Western blot, immunohistochemistry, ELISA, spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), among others.

The lab consists of a core space surrounded by three behavioral running rooms and an additional room dedicated to drug storage and preparation, as well as wet assays and histology. The graduate student office is adjacent to the lab. All animal housing is in an adjacent secure facility which can house up to 500 animals in six individual temperature-controlled housing rooms. This area also houses food and bedding storage, cage and bottle washing facilities and common rooms for injections and surgeries.

• Olympus fluorescence microscope tethered to Image-Pro Plus software for image processing, enhancement and analysis
• Ten chambers for schedule-controlled responding (including drug discrimination learning and schedule-induced polydipsia) tethered to a Med Associates interface
• A full wet-lab bench used for the preparation of compounds for research projects and the preparation of biological tissues for subsequent analyses
• Coulbourn Instruments operant chamber equipped with a Med Associates food hopper and drug infusion tether line and swivel
• Eight San Diego Instruments automated conditioned place preference and locomotor testing chambers
• Ten Colburn Instruments sound-attenuating operant chambers suitable for food and/or drug self-administration tethered to a Med Associates interface
• VWR Symphony 2417R cold centrifuge
• Jenway 6400 Spectrophotometer
• Thermo Scientific CryoStar NX70 cryostat, a Jenway 6400 Spectrophotometer, a VWR Symphony 2417R cold centrifuge, a Fischer Scientific sonicator and a Daigger dissecting microscope
• Q-Sonica ultrasonic homogenizer
• Shimadzu UFLC-ECD
• autosampler for HPLC analyses
• Fully software-driven Leica stereotaxic instrument