{"id":4810,"date":"2014-06-03T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T13:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inbre\/?page_id=4810"},"modified":"2014-06-03T09:29:08","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T13:29:08","slug":"kaun","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/research\/ecd\/kaun\/","title":{"rendered":"The role of notch signaling in alcohol reward memory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Investigator:<\/strong>\u00a0Karla Kaun, Brown University<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mentor:<\/strong>\u00a0Anne Hart, Brown University<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scientific Theme:\u00a0<\/strong>Neuroscience<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Abstract:<\/strong>\u00a0Despite alcohol being one of the most used and abused drugs in the world, the molecular mechanisms\u00a0underlying alcohol abuse disorders remain largely unknown. Recent studies in both flies and mammals\u00a0suggest that signaling pathways that play a large role in development have a secondary role in alcohol induced\u00a0behaviors in the adult. Our recent genetic screen for alcohol reward memory in <em>Drosophila\u00a0melanogaster<\/em> strongly suggests a role for the Notch signaling pathway. Notch signaling is one of the best\u00a0examples of the brain employing an evolutionarily conserved developmental pathway to regulate higher\u00a0cognitive function. Drosophila is an ideal model to study this because genetic tools available make it possible\u00a0to restrict manipulations of Notch expression to small subsets of neurons within the adult brain. The goal of\u00a0this proposal research is to understand the mechanism by which the Notch affects memory for alcohol\u00a0reward in the adult brain. We will do this by defining the specific subset of neurons in the adult brain Notch\u00a0acts in to affect alcohol reward memory. Then, we will identify genes that are the direct targets of Notch\u00a0within these neurons. The remarkable conservation of Notch signaling between flies and mammals at the\u00a0molecular level suggests that the findings of this study may be directly applicable to understanding molecular\u00a0mechanisms underlying human alcohol use disorders (AUDs). If the proposed aims are achieved, they will\u00a0provide the first direct evidence for a role for Notch signaling in development of addiction. They will also\u00a0identify genes that are direct targets of Notch, which can both provide candidate genes for the genetics of\u00a0AUDs in humans, and suggest potential targets for pharmacotherapy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Human Health Relevance:<\/strong> Alcoholism is a devastating disease, affecting 18 million people in the United States, with few effective\u00a0treatment options. We use sophisticated neurogenetic tools available in the fruit fly to understand the\u00a0molecular mechanisms of alcoholism. This will lead to a deeper understanding of the genetic underpinnings\u00a0of alcoholism and may lead to identification of novel pharmacotherapies for alcohol use disorders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investigator:\u00a0Karla Kaun, Brown University Mentor:\u00a0Anne Hart, Brown University Scientific Theme:\u00a0Neuroscience Abstract:\u00a0Despite alcohol being one of the most used and abused drugs in the world, the molecular mechanisms\u00a0underlying alcohol abuse disorders remain largely unknown. Recent studies in both flies and mammals\u00a0suggest that signaling pathways that play a large role in development have a secondary role in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1036,"featured_media":0,"parent":10203,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-twocol.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-4810","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4810\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/riinbre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}