RESEARCH

Over the years my research interest has evolved and is now focused on the molecular basis of neurobehavioral changes using in-vitro and in-vivo systems^a,b. The broad research area of my interest is in drug abuse and mental health.

1. Drug abuse research:
Cannabinoid research^a: The goal of this continuing research is to unravel the mechanism of some cannabinoid induced behaviors. In order to accomplish this goal, I use molecular techniques in combination with stereotaxic approaches to determine the molecular events associated with cannabinoid induced behavioral changes^a,b,c,d. Specifically, we have used cloning, gene expression and immunoblotting analysis to study cannabinoid induced behaviors. This research is being extended to the use of cannabinoid transgenic and inducible mutant mice in order to understand behavioral alterations following cannabis use. As addiction may be to multiple substances, where appropriate, other abused drugs are evaluated in the in-vivo and in-vitro end points^e as well as interaction between cannabinoids and vanilloid systems.

2. Mental health research:
Two strategies are involved. First is to extend the animal work to human studies. Second is the use of animal models to study human neuropsychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety. An example of the first program is to understand the influence of gender and race on the effects of abused substances, particularly cannabinoids. One such project is studying ethnic and gender differences on cannabinoid receptors and the expression of their transcripts in blood of human subjects^f. The long-term goal of the project is to determine the role of cannabinoid receptors in different neuropsychiatric conditions.

3. Animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders:
The use of animal models of depression and anxiety is related to both drug abuse and mental health research. There may be a link between abused drugs and anxiety and/or depression in terms of vulnerability to drug abuse, withdrawal and craving reactions. My approach is to study the molecular basis of neurobehavioral alterations using these animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders^a,b,c,d,e.