Description:

Steven Graves, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN

Expertise: Slice electrophysiology, stereology, immunohistochemistry, two-photon laser scanning microscopy, and behavioral pharmacology

“Methamphetamine, neurodegeneration, and differential"

Abstract: Methamphetamine is an addictive psychostimulant that rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s which led to the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005. Despite this legislation methamphetamine abuse, overdose deaths, and hospitalizations have been increasing at alarming rates in recent years. Methamphetamine abuse is especially dangerous because in addition to being highly addictive it has been shown to be neurotoxic in preclinical and clinical studies. My lab is interested in identifying mechanisms by which methamphetamine exposure results in deleterious outcomes thereby identifying potential neuroprotective therapeutic strategies. Using two-photon laser scanning microscopy in live ex vivo mouse brain slices with genetically encoded biosensors, chronic in vivo treatment paradigms, and unbiased stereological methods to quantify neuronal loss, we have identified differential vulnerability across monoaminergic neuronal populations and tested the ability of clinically available medications to afford protection against methamphetamine induced neurodegeneration.