Major Areas of Research Interest

• Identification of genes contributing to substance abuse in humans.
• The study of the effects of exercise on alcohol-related phenotypes in mouse models.
  

Personnel

• Laboratory Director: Marissa A. Ehringer, Ph.D.
• Professional Research Assistants: Hilary Davis
• Collaborators: Dr. John Hewitt, IBG, University of Colorado; Dr. Michael Stallings, IBG, University of Colorado; Dr. Susan Young, IBG, University of Colorado; Dr. Robin Corley, IBG, University of Colorado; Dr. Andrew Smolen, IBG, University of Colorado; Dr. Kenneth Krauter, MCDB, University of Colorado; Dr. Allan Collins, IBG, University of Colorado; University of Colorado; Dr. Jeanne Wehner, IBG, University of Colorado; Dr. Christian Hopfer, UCHSC, Denver
  

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Current Research Projects

• Examination of candidate genes for tobacco use and addiction.
• Examination of candidate genes for marijuana use and progression to addiction.
  
• Examination of candidate genes for initiation of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs; for association with behavioral disinhibition phentoypes.
• Using bioinformatics tools and genomics resources to identify variations within candidate genes and evaluate their potential functional importance.
  
• Testing the effects of running on alcohol preference in different strains of mice.

Recent Publications

• M.A. Ehringer and J.M. Sikela. 2002 Genomic Approaches to the Genetics of Alcoholism. Alcohol Research and Health, 26(3): 181-192.
• M. Saito, M.A. Ehringer, R. Toth, M. Oros, I. Szakall, J.M. Sikela, C. Vadasz. 2003 Variants of κ opioid receptor gene and mRNA in alcohol-preferring and -avoiding mice. Alcohol 29: 39-49.
• M.A. Ehringer, J. Thompson, O. Conroy, F. Yang, R. Hink, M. Beeson, L. Gordon, B. Bennett, T.E. Johnson, J.M. Sikela. 2002 Fine-Mapping of Polymorphic Alcohol-Related QTL Candidate Genes using Interval-Specific Congenic Recombinants. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 26(11): 1603-1608.
• M.A. Ehringer, J. Thompson, O. Conroy, D. Goldman, T.L. Smith, M.A. Schuckit, and J.M. Sikela 2002 Human alcoholism studies of genes identified through mouse QTL analysis. Addiction Biology 7(4): 365-371.
• S.L. Kirstein, K.L. Davidson, M.A. Ehringer, and B. Tabakoff. 2002 Quantitative trait loci affecting initial sensitivity and acute functional tolerance to ethanol-induced ataxia and brain cAMP signaling in BXD RI mice. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 302(3): 1238-1245.
• M.A. Ehringer, J. Thompson, O. Conroy, Y. Xu, F. Yang, J. Canniff, M. Beeson, L. Gordon, B. Bennett, T.E. Johnson, and J.M. Sikela. 2001 High-Throughput Sequence Identification of Gene Coding Variants within Alcohol-Related QTLs. Mammalian Genome 12:657-663.

Funding

• 2002-2005 Colorado Tobacco Research Program, "Candidate Genes for Tobacco Use and Dependence"