Matthew Pitts
University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI·Neuroscience
Mercury is a nerve poison, and the World Health Organization ranks it among the top ten chemicals of public health concern. The effects of large, sudden doses are well documented.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Physiology
- Topics
methylmercury
selenium
selenoenzymes
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2027
What they work on
- Determine how mercury affects selenium-dependent antioxidant balance in primary cortical cultures, neurons grown in a dish, by measuring the activity of selenoenzymes, the selenium-containing enzymes that protect cells from oxidative damage.
- Measure how mercury shifts excitatory-inhibitory tone, the balance between activating and calming signals, and how it changes the electrical activity of cultured cortical neurons, with attention to fast-firing parvalbumin interneurons.
- Test whether subtoxic mercury exposure in juvenile rodents causes immediate and lasting deficits in the brain and in behavior, using molecular and tissue-staining measures to look for preferential damage to parvalbumin-expressing interneurons.
- Characterize how juvenile mercury exposure changes the gut microbiota of rodents, the community of bacteria living in the gut, alongside the brain and behavioral outcomes.
More about the research
Much less is known about chronic, low-level exposure during adolescence, a period when the brain is still maturing. This gap matters because most psychiatric disorders first show symptoms in early adulthood. The project asks which brain cells and circuits are most harmed by teenage mercury exposure, and whether dietary selenium, a trace element, changes that harm.
Why it matters
Low-level mercury exposure is common, and oxidative stress is known to contribute to mental illness. By showing how mercury and dietary selenium together shape the developing teenage brain, this work could help explain how environmental exposures raise the risk of psychiatric disorders. It could also inform guidance on mercury exposure and selenium intake for adolescents.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Guillermo Gonzalez-Burgos
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Neuroscience
Define the gene-expression markers that distinguish continuous and delayed fast-spiking parvalbumin interneuron subtypes in mouse prefrontal and visual cortex. Patch-seq links RNA, electrical activity and shape in single cells.
Christopher Kroenke
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Neuroscience
Test whether chronic intermittent ethanol exposure combined with forced swim stress shifts the excitatory-to-inhibitory balance of input to medium spiny neurons in the mouse dorsolateral striatum, using ex vivo slice electrophysiology.
Nicole Ferrara
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, IL·Neuroscience
Test whether social deprivation reduces excitation of basomedial amygdala (BMA) principal neurons, using in vitro electrophysiology in brain slices from adolescent and adult rats to compare circuit maturation across ages.
The school
University of Hawaii at Manoa: 23 labs on PI Pages, $376M a year on research, 182 research doctorates a year.
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