Emily Miller
I first joined the lab in Spring 2022 as an undergraduate research volunteer, under the mentorship of Dr. Habibeh Khoshbouei. My primary work with Dr. Adithya Gopinath focused on exploring how states of abnormal dopamine transmission affect peripheral immune responses and neuroimmune interactions in the brain. Utilizing murine models of non-contingent, systemic methamphetamine (METH) administration as well as dopamine transporter knockout (DAT KO), we investigated the immunological role of DAT, a master regulator of dopaminergic tone. I had the opportunity to present this work at a number of regional and national conferences and it has led to multiple co-authorships. During this time, I also directed a team of fellow undergrads conducting histological experiments characterizing CNS neuroimmune interactions in DAT KO mice, focusing on engagement between microglia and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive dopamine neurons and further analyzing glial morphology along the mesolimbic and nigrostriatal pathways.
Upon starting in the Neuroscience PhD Program in August 2023, I became interested in studying how prenatal methamphetamine use affects offspring development. Epidemiologically, in utero exposure to METH has been linked to various developmental issues in children such as impaired intellectual functioning, memory, language development, emotional regulation and can confer increased susceptibility to neurodevelopmental disease. Neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders are often associated with atypical neural connectivity, thought to be due to alterations in canonical developmental processes, such as synaptic pruning, that occur during childhood and adolescence. Utilizing a mouse model of in utero METH exposure, I am focused on elucidating the age- and sex-dependent effects on dopaminergic neuron maturation and function, neuron-glia interactions, and how these correspond to anxious and addictivebehaviors through the animal’s lifetime. We hypothesize prenatal METH exposure modulates the maturation of midbrain-originating innervation of the striatum and/or prefrontal cortex by altering neuroimmune interactions. To test this, we will employ a variety of behavioral, histological, biochemical, and electrophysiological techniques to explore the effect in dopaminergic nuclei and projection regions.