Our addiction research lab primarily seeks to investigate the underlying neurobiology and neurocircuitry of substance use disorders and comorbid sleep disorders.
We are particularly interested in the contributions of stress and hyperarousal systems to these disorders. |
Lab Updates
April 2024 - Lab members Dr. Marissa Jones, Galen Huffcutt, Tyler Zarin, and Jessica Lord present their research at the Appalachian Student Research Forum. We hope to see you there!
March 2024- Lab members Dr. Marissa Jones and Galen Huffcutt presented research at the Brain, Behavior, and Chemistry conference in San Antonia, TX. Stop by their talk and poster to learn more about the lab's ongoing research. March 2024- Congratulations to Parker Barnes for successfully defending her MS thesis on "Perinatal Buprenorphine Effects on Offspring Growth, Opioid Withdrawal, and Brain Morphology in Rats." Brava Parker! November 2023- Lab members Dr. Marissa Jones, Tyler Zarin, and Galen Huffcutt presented research at the annual Society for Neuroscience 2023 conference. We hope to see you at their talks and posters! November 2023- Big Congrats to Galen Huffcutt for completing his Qualifying Exams for the PhD program. He is now a PhD candidate! August 2023 - We are excited to welcome ETSU undergraduates to the lab. Welcome back Grace Chintalekha, and welcome Justyn Forbes and Shelby Roberts! They will assist with research and lab upkeep throughout the academic year. June 2023 - Dr. Marissa Jones will be presenting her research at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence 85th Annual Scientific Meeting this weekend in Colorado. Stop by her poster to learn more. April 2023 - Congratulations to lab member Dr. Marissa Jones for winning an award for her research presentation at the Appalachian Student Research Forum. April 2023 - Lab members Dr. Marissa Jones, Tyler Zarin, and Galen Huffcutt present their research at the Appalachian Student Research Forum. Stop by their talk and posters to learn more. March 2023- In the News: ETSU Mentored Substance Use Research training program February 2023- Join us for lab member Tyler Zarin's presentation for the Department of Biomedical Sciences seminar, "The Effects of Systemic and Central Amygdala Hypocretin Inhibition on Methamphetamine and Polysubstance Dependence." Congratulations! February 2023- The Schmeichel lab gives back! Dr. Brooke Schmeichel visited a local preschool classroom for community outreach. She presented the preschoolers with basic facts about the brain and senses. February 2023- Welcome Noah Rutherford (QCOM medical student) and Olivia Knoll (QCOM medical student) as mentees in the EMSUR training program. They will be training under Dr. Brooke Schmeichel, with assistance from Parker Barnes and Kaitlyn Taylor on our gestational buprenorphine study. November 2022- Lab members Dr. Marissa Jones, Tyler Zarin, and Ben Sawyer presented research at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference. We hope to see you at their talks and posters! October 2022- Welcome to Parker Barnes and Jessica Lord who have joined the lab as Master of Biological Sciences graduate students! They will be embarking on some exciting research so stay tuned! August 2022- Congratulations to Tyler Zarin for passing his qualifying exams! He is now a Doctoral Candidate! July 2022- Bravo to Gabriel Aldridge (M.S. '22) on his first-authored paper in the Addiction Neuroscience Journal, entitled, "Effects of single and dual hypocretin-receptor blockade or knockdown of hypocretin projections to the central amygdala on alcohol drinking in dependent male rats." This publication was nearly 15 years in the making! Way to bring it to the finish line Gabriel! Read the full article here. June 2022- Welcome Jonathan Yanka and Maggie Forrester to the lab as undergraduate research assistants for the summer! June 2022- Congratulations to Drs. Puri, Schmeichel and Connors as recipients of the ETSU Research Development Committee Interdisciplinary Grant award, entitled "Development of a novel skin patch of naloxone for emergency treatment of opioid overdose." The goal of this exciting project is to develop a rapid-onset transdermal system with sustained delivery of naloxone that does not require a trained healthcare worker for use in the case of opioid overdose. June 2022- Kudos! The Schmeichel Lab is the recipient of an ETSU Research Development Committee Major Grant, entitled "Effects of maternal perinatal buprenorphine administration at clinically-relevant doses on early life span in rat offspring." We are excited to collaborate with Dr. Marty Olsen, M.D. on this translational project. Our aim with this study is to test whether low-dose buprenorphine (a medication used for treatment of opioid use disorder) given to pregnant females results in fewer negative outcomes in offspring across the lifespan compared to a higher dose of buprenorphine administered during pregnancy. May 2022- Welcome Shane Richey (QCOM medical student, class of 2024) to the lab as a Quillen College of Medicine Research Fellow for the 2022 Medical Student Summer Research Program! April 2022- Introducing our newest PhD trainee, Galen Huffcutt, to the Schmeichel Lab! Galen is a first-year student in the Biological Sciences Graduate Program at ETSU, coming to us from Utah State University (BS, Biology, ’20). He will be heading up studies investigating the neurocircuitry underlying sleep dysfunction associated with methamphetamine dependence. April 2022- And the winner is….Brava Dr. Marissa Jones for placing 1st in the Doctoral Students & Fellows Oral Presentations (Bio & Social Sciences division) at the 2022 Appalachian Student Research Forum! Shout outs to Gabriel Aldridge for placing 2nd in the Masters Students Poster Presentations (Bio-chem Sciences division) and Stephen Foster for placing 3rd in the Undergraduate Students Poster Presentation (Health care division). Nice work all around Schmeichel Lab! April 2022- Congratulations to Gabriel Aldridge for successfully defending his MS thesis on "Hypocretin- Receptor mRNA Expression in the Central Amygdala of Alcohol-Dependent and Non-Dependent Rats." Bravo Gabriel! February 2022- Congrats to Dr. Marissa Jones and Tyler Zarin as recipients of the 14th Annual Behavior, Biology, and Chemistry Meeting Trainee Travel Award. See you in San Antonio! February 2022- Massive congratulations to Dr. Marissa Jones and Adam Brandner (former NIDA post-bacc, current grad student at University of Pittsburgh) for their first, first-co-author publication with the lab in Frontiers in Neuroscience, Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Section this month. Marissa and Adam’s sleep EEG data indicates sleep dysregulation in REM and NREM sleep in alcohol-dependent rats. You can read the full article here! January 2022- Welcome to the lab Taylor Parsons (major: Health Science, x ‘24) as an undergraduate research assistant. January 2022- Welcome Galen Huffcutt to the lab, who will be rotating over the spring semester as a first-year graduate student in the Biomedical Sciences PhD Program. October 2021- Congratulations to Stephen Foster for being awarded a Student-Faculty Collaborative Grant from the ETSU Honors College! His proposal is entitled, “The Effects of Escalated Cocaine Intake in Rats on Prodynorphin Signaling in the Extended Amygdala.” October 2021- Welcome Bailey McGuffin to the lab, who will be rotating over the fall semester as a first-year graduate student in the Biomedical Sciences PhD Program. September 2021- Welcome to the lab Cade Oculam (major: Biology, x ‘23) as an undergraduate research assistant. June 2021- Kudos to Tyler Zarin and Nelly Gregorian for a great presentation entitled, “Hypocretin: a potential therapeutic target for substance use disorders,” culminating their EMSUR training experience. April 2021- Welcome Nelly Gregorian (QCOM med student, class of 2022) to the lab as a mentee in the EMSUR training program. April 2021- Congratulations to Tyler Zarin for being chosen as a mentee of the inaugural ETSU Mentored Substance Use Research Program (EMSUR), a cross-college and cross-disciplinary training program. April 2021- In the news: “Inaugural ETSU Mentored Substance Use Research training program launches” (ETSU News) January 2021- We are pleased to welcome the lab’s first post-doctoral trainee- Dr. Marissa Jones! Dr. Jones is a home-grown scientist, having earned her BS, MA and PhD degrees here at ETSU (as they say here, on “the other side of the street”). She completed here PhD degree in Experimental Psychology with Dr. Eric Sellers, studying the relationship between adverse childhood experiences, acute stress, and working memory. She comes to us with an expertise in EEG analysis and we are very excited to have her take on a lead role in our substance use/sleep disorder projects! October 2020- A warm welcome to Gabriel Aldridge to the lab! Gabriel joins us as a first-year student in the Master’s of Science in Biological Sciences Program (Biomedical sciences concentration) from Carson-Newman University (BA Biology, ‘20). He will be working on getting RNAscope multiplex assays up and functioning in the lab. September 2020- Welcome to two new undergraduate research assistants to the lab- Stephen Foster (Major: Chemistry, x’22) and Cassidy Hawkins (Major: undecided, x’24). Happy to have you! September 2020- Fall is here and so are our newest cohort of graduate students! Welcome Tyler Zarin to the Schmeichel Lab! Tyler is a first-year student in the Biological Sciences Graduate Program here, coming to us from Quinnipiac University (BS, Behavioral Neuroscience, ’19; MS, Biomedical Sciences, ’20). He will be heading up studies investigating the neurocircuitry underlying methamphetamine dependence. March 2020- Welcome to Ben Sawyer, a recent graduate of our own ETSU (BS, Psychology, ’19), as our new head lab technician! A man of many talents! February 2020- And so it begins…Welcome to the Schmeichel Lab! We are excited to be joining the ETSU family in the Quillen College of Medicine and cannot wait to start forging collaborations both intramurally and extramurally and conducting some awesome science together! |
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