Erin Milligan
University of New Mexico, NM·Neuroscience
Alcohol exposure before birth can leave a lasting vulnerability in the brain. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) often show up as thinking and memory problems only in adolescence or early adulthood, frequently after a later stress acts as a "second hit." Evidence points to faulty communication between the brain and the immune system.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Microbiology & Immunology
Genetics
- Topics
fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
prenatal alcohol exposure
circular RNA
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Test whether circular RNAs (circRNAs), non-coding RNAs that regulate genes, disrupted by prenatal alcohol exposure are necessary and sufficient for working-memory deficits triggered by minor stressors in adolescent mice.
- Measure circRNAs and their linked mRNAs and immune proteins, including TLR4-pathway factors, in blood and memory-related brain regions of adolescent mice exposed to alcohol before birth, comparing males and females.
- Determine whether circRNA levels in saliva and blood of adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders predict cognitive performance and stress perception during cognitive tasks.
More about the research
This research asks whether small regulatory RNA molecules set up that faulty communication, and whether they could serve as early warning markers.
Why it matters
Teenagers with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders often develop learning and memory problems, but the cause is unknown and markers to flag at-risk youth are lacking. Circular RNAs measured in saliva or blood could become biomarkers that identify adolescents at risk of cognitive problems so they can receive early intervention. The circRNAs and immune pathways identified may also become targets for future treatments.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kristin Hamre
University of Tennessee Health Science Center, TN·Neuroscience
Test whether ethanol exposure in the first 10 postnatal days, when the mouse hippocampus is most sensitive, leads to earlier Alzheimer's-like behavior in 5xFAD mice, using tasks such as the Morris water maze.
Joseph O'Neill
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine whether trigeminal nerve stimulation, a noninvasive facial nerve stimulation therapy cleared for ADHD, is feasible for children with prenatal alcohol exposure, measuring compliance, side effects and early signs of symptom relief in a pilot phase.
Kevin Williams
North Carolina Central University, NC·Biology
Test how candidate genes, identified as altered in ethanol-exposed mouse limb buds by RNA sequencing, rescue or worsen alcohol-induced fin and limb defects, using gene knockouts in cells, zebrafish and mice.
The school
University of New Mexico: 27 labs on PI Pages, $355M a year on research, 182 research doctorates a year.
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