Colleen McClung

Colleen Ann McClung is an American chronobiologist and neuroscientist. She is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Education and career

In 1990, McClung began her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1994 with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry.[1] In the year of 1995, McClung became a student at the graduate department of the University of Virginia, and in 2001 she received a PhD in Biology from the same institution.[1] In 2001, McClung started her postdoctoral work in the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center working with Eric J. Nestler; she remained there until 2003 when she became an instructor in the department of psychiatry at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. From 2005 until 2011, she was an assistant professor at the same department. In 2011, McClung became an associate professor at the Psychiatry Department at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. In 2017, she was promoted to professor.[1]

Research

McClung's research focuses on discovering, analyzing and studying the molecular and biological mechanisms of diseases such as drug addiction, schizophrenia, major depression and bipolar disorder, with a primary interest in understanding their association with circadian rhythms. During her Ph.D. McClung worked on the use of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system to study the genetics of drugs sensitization.[2][3][4] McClung went on to study the relationship of circadian rhythms with the development of psychiatric disorders.[5] McClung has also used microarray technologies to examine gene expression changes in the mouse brain in the context of psychiatric disorders, specially addiction.[6] Her work on disrupting clock genes in mice and has lead mice to develop bipolar disorder,[7][8] and shown how circadian rhythms can control moods in people.[9]

Awards and honors

In 2015 McClung was elected a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Fellow (2015).[10] In 2021 she received the Colvin Prizewinner for Outstanding Achievement in Mood Disorder Research from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.[11]

Selected publications

References
  1. "BIOGRAPHY". McClung Lab. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  2. McClung, Colleen; Hirsh, Jay (1998-01-15). "Stereotypic behavioral responses to free-base cocaine and the development of behavioral sensitization in Drosophila". Current Biology. 8 (2): 109–112. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(98)70041-7. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 9427649. S2CID 16198115.
  3. "Fruit flies might explain cocaine addiction". National Post. 1998-01-13. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  4. Larkin, Marilynn (1998). "High flies may speed addiction research". The Lancet. 351 (9098): 271. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)78260-X. S2CID 54237161.
  5. Vergano, Dan (2007-06-21). "Making circadian rhythms tick". The Oshkosh Northwestern. p. 19. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  6. McClung, Colleen A.; Nestler, Eric J. (2003). "Regulation of gene expression and cocaine reward by CREB and ΔFosB". Nature Neuroscience. 6 (11): 1208–1215. doi:10.1038/nn1143. ISSN 1546-1726. PMID 14566342. S2CID 38115726.
  7. "Learned this week". The Vancouver Sun. 2007-03-24. p. 41. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  8. Talan, Jamie (2006-11-02). "Clues to mental illness". Newsday (Suffolk Edition). p. 36. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  9. McClung, Colleen A. (2013-08-15). "How Might Circadian Rhythms Control Mood? Let Me Count the Ways..." Biological Psychiatry. 74 (4): 242–249. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.02.019. ISSN 0006-3223. PMC 3725187. PMID 23558300.
  10. "Members of the American College of Neuropharmacology" (PDF). Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  11. "Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Awards 2021 Outstanding Achievement Prizes to Nine Leading Psychiatric Researchers". New York [New York]: NASDAQ OMX's News Release Distribution Channel. 20 Oct 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.