Patricia Shinnick-Gallagher, Ph.D.

Professor

Affiliations: Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior; Adjunct Member, MBI

Phone: (409) 772-9648
Fax: (409) 772-9642
Email: psgallag@utmb.edu

Education

• B.S., R.Ph. 1970 University of Illinois at Chicago
• Ph.D. 1974 Loyola University of Chicago

research interests

Functional Roles of the Amygdala in Epilepsy,
Fear Conditioning and Chronic Cocaine

Research in this laboratory is focused on characterizing neural transmission and defining neural processes in the amygdala, a limbic brain structure which plays a key role in stress, fear/anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and drug abuse. We employ patch clamp recordings from in vitro brain slice preparations and analyze the mechanisms of action of excitatory and inhibitory amino acids, peptides, immune factors, biogenic amines, and steroid hormones at pertinent synapses in the different nuclei of the amygdala. Alterations in drug actions and/or electrophysiological characteristics are analyzed and compared in the models of synaptic plasticity. Recently we have initiated studies to correlate the expression of the electrophysiological changes in the models of synaptic plasticity with molecular measures at the single cell level. One project in the lab aims at elucidating the role of metabotropic glutamate receptors in an epilepsy model of synaptic plasticity. In another project the mechanisms underlying the behavioral expression of fear conditioning recorded in vitro are being compared to models of an electrically induced model of memory and learning, long term potentiation. Our research is also directed at describing the changes in neurotransmitter and neuropeptide mechanisms in the amygdala after chronic cocaine administration. Finally, calcium and potassium ion channels in amygdala neurons are characterized using neurotoxin probes and analyzed with respect to how the properties of these channels are modified by endogenous transmitters and in the different models of synaptic plasticity.

Biographical Information

Dr. Patricia Shinnick-Gallagher is a Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is an adjunct member of the Marine Biomedical Institute. She received a PhD. Degree in Pharmacology from Loyola University in Chicago (1974) and holds an undergraduate B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy (1970). From 1989-1993 she was a member of Neurological Sciences-2 NIH Study Section and continues to review NIH grants on an Ad Hoc basis. She is currently principal investigator on two NIH grants from NINDS and NIMH and is a co-principal investigator on a third grant from NIDA. Author of over 100 publications, Dr. Shinnick-Gallagher has trained 7 graduate students and 23 postdoctoral fellows.

Selected Publications

Keele, N.B., Neugebauer, V., and Shinnick-Gallagher, P. Kindling-induced epilepsy upregulates metabotropic glutamate receptor mediated activation of sodium-calcium exchange current in rat basolateral amygdala neurons. J. Neurophysiol., in press, 2000.

Keele, N.B., Neugebauer, V., and Shinnick-Gallagher, P. Differential effects of metabotropic glutamate receptors antagonists on bursting activity in the amygdala. J. Neurophysiol. 81: 2056-2065, 1999.

Yu, B. and Shinnick-Gallagher, P.. Corticotropin-releasing factor increases dihydropyridine- and neurotoxin-resistant calcium currents in neurons of the central amygdala. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 284: 170-179, 1998.

McKernan, M. and Shinnick-Gallagher, P. Fear conditioning induces long-lasting increases in amygdala synaptic efficacy. Nature, 390: 607-611, 1997.

Neugebauer, V., Keele, N.B. and Shinnick-Gallagher, P. Epileptogenesis in vivo enhances the sensitivity of inhibitory presynaptic metabotropic glutamate receptors in rat basolateral amygdala neurons. J. Neurosci., 17:983-995, 1997.

Keele, N.B., Arvanov, V.L. and Shinnick-Gallagher, P. Quisqualate-preferring metabotropic glutamate receptor activates Na+-Ca2+exchange in rat basolateral amygdala neurones. J. Physiol (Lond.), 499:87-104, 1997.