Janine Kwapis
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Neuroscience
How do experiences leave lasting molecular marks on the brain that change later behavior and memory? The lab's projects study epigenetic and gene-regulation mechanisms, which control which genes are switched on, in the brain regions that handle memory and fear.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Genetics
Psychology
- Topics
epigenetics
histone acetylation
histone deacetylase
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jan 2031
What they work on
- Test whether HDAC3 in the amygdala controls stress-enhanced fear learning in male and female mice by increasing or decreasing HDAC3 during varying amounts of acute stress.
- Use RNA-seq and ChIP-seq to test whether intense stress leaves an epigenetic molecular memory at fear memory genes, then use HSV-CRISPRi to test whether top candidate genes are required for fear sensitization.
- Identify genes behind female-specific fear sensitization after 2-shock stress, and use HSV-CRISPRi/CRISPRa to test whether HDAC3 acts through these genes in both sexes.
- Test whether the clock gene Per1 controls day–night differences in hippocampal memory allocation in young mice, using HSV-CRISPR manipulation of Per1 and Arc FISH tracking of memory-encoding neurons.
- Determine whether Per1 controls memory allocation through CREB activity by pairing Per1 manipulation with phospho-dead (CREBS133A) or phospho-mimetic (CREBS133D) CREB viruses, and test whether age-related loss of Per1 disrupts this in old mice.
More about the research
One project asks why a single stressful event can make the brain overreact to later frightening experiences, a feature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and why females may be more vulnerable. Women are nearly twice as likely as men to develop PTSD. The other asks how the body's 24-hour circadian clock controls memory, and why memory and daily rhythms both break down with aging.
Why it matters
These studies could identify sex-specific molecular targets for preventing the exaggerated fear seen in PTSD, a disorder that affects women nearly twice as often as men. The circadian work may reveal how clock genes link poor sleep rhythms to memory loss in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. It may point to new therapeutic targets for improving cognition in older adults.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Christa McIntyre
University of Texas at Dallas, TX·Neuroscience
Test in rats whether pairing exposure with vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) produces fear extinction memories that last longer and generalize to related cues, compared with exposure alone.
Sydney Trask
Indiana University, IN·Neuroscience
Compare UCS deflation, presenting weaker versions of a feared stimulus, with standard extinction in renewal, spontaneous recovery and reinstatement tests, predicting that only deflation reduces all three forms of fear relapse.
Jun-Hyeong Cho
University of California-Riverside, CA·Neuroscience
Determine how contextual fear memory is encoded through synaptic strengthening in the hippocampus–amygdala pathway, combining engram cell labeling, optogenetics and electrophysiology.
The school
Pennsylvania State University: 60 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 743 research doctorates a year.
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