Dr. Brooke Schmeichel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor | Department of Biomedical Sciences Brooke received her PhD in 2012 in the laboratory of Dr. Craig Berridge at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studies the behavioral actions of stimulants (amphetamines and methylphenidate) in the prefrontal cortex and lateral hypothalamus. She then commenced postdoctoral training with Dr. George Koob, initially at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA, and ultimately finishing at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Intramural Research Program in Baltimore, MD in 2019. During her postdoctoral training, Brooke studied the neurobiology of compulsive-like drug dependence, awarded a K99/R00 grant to study the role of the neuropeptide hypocretin in methamphetamine dependence. Her current lab at East Tennessee State University, in the Quillen College of Medicine, utilized a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the neurocircuitry underlying addiction and related comorbidities, with focuses on the contributions of stress system sensitization, reward deficits, and sleep dysfunction during various states of dependence, including withdrawal and relapse. The ultimate goal of this research is to identify potential neurobiological targets for the pharmacological treatment of substance use disorders that can be used in combination with behavioral therapies in the clinical setting. |
Staff
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Chloe Garbe
Lab Technician
Lab Technician
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Marissa Jones, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Fellow I am interested in electroencephalogram (EEG) data analysis techniques within the context of clinically relevant models of addiction. Presently, I am examining the relationship between chronic exposure to opioids and sleep disturbances using EEG. Specifically, I aim to explore the multi-purpose uses of medications that target hypocretin to mitigate these sleep disturbances.
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Graduate Students
Tyler Zarin
Graduate Student (Ph.D. X'25) My work in the lab focuses on the interaction between hypocretin/orexin and dynorphin on substance dependence. Particularly, I am focused on polysubstance dependence (methamphetamine and fentanyl) and how pharmaceutical, adeno-associated virus, and chemogenetic modulations of hypocretin and dynorphin signaling can uncover potential therapeutic avenues for decreasing substance use disorders.
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Galen Huffcutt
Graduate Student (Ph.D. x'26) My research focus is on the neurobiological underpinnings of sleep as a comorbidity of methamphetamine use disorders. We use radio telemetry to record sleep/wake EEG/EMG states and examine sleep dysfunction in rats that are dependent on vaporized methamphetamine.
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Jessica Lord
Graduate Student (M.S. x'24) My research is over the effects of norbinaltorphimine (NBI), a long-acting kappa opioid receptor antagonist, in rats addicted to cocaine. The aim of the study is to understand the neurocircuitry of cocaine addiction, with the hope of identifying specific brain regions involved, as well as potential therapeutic target(s) for stimulant use disorders in humans.
Parker Barnes
Graduate Student (M.S. x'24) I graduated from Clemson University in May 2022 with a degree in Biological Sciences. In the lab, I work on a gestational opioid study focused on offspring outcomes. The study aims to determine if a clinically-relevant, low dose of buprenorphine may reduce offspring NOWS scores and change offspring brain morphology and nociception sensitivity compared to offspring perinatally exposed to a high (yet still clinically-relevant) dose of buprenorphine. I am currently looking at medical school as my next steps after graduation.
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Lab Alumni
Gabriel Aldridge
Graduate Student (M.S. 2022) The primary focus of my research project in the Schmeichel lab has been neuroadaptations in the hypocretin system during alcohol dependence, utilizing RNAscope techniques to quantify hypocretin-receptor distribution in the extended amygdala of alcohol-dependent rats.
Kaitlyn Taylor
Lab Technician |
Undergraduate Students
Current students:
- Grace Chintalekha, Chemistry, B.S.
- Shelby Roberts, Biology, B.S.
- Justyn Forbes, Health Sciences, B.S.
Previously in the lab:
- Ben Sawyer
- Cassidy Hawkins
- Stephen Foster
- Cade Oculam
- Taylor Parsons