Author Archives: Jennie Vaughn

Michael Bremmer, a PhD student in the Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience (BIN) program at the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, received a Doctoral Student Small Grant from the Research Society on Alcohol. He was one of five students...

March is National Alcohol and Drug Fact Awareness Month. Listen to the Wellness Wednesday conversation on 97.9 WCHL between high school student Bryan Torres and Dr. Jessica Hoffman, BCAS Research Associate and Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Orange County Partnership for a Drug Free Youth, as they...

BCAS faculty Leon Coleman, MD, PhD, will be a featured speaker at the Triangle Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting to be held on Friday, April 26. Dr. Coleman is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology. Other speakers include Dr. Monika Williams, Dr. Guohong Cui, and keynote speaker Dr. Yarimar Carrasquillo. There...

BCAS faculty Leon Coleman, MD, PhD, and colleagues were awarded a five-year, $675,000 grant to lead a summer undergraduate experience program promoting neuropharmacology and neurobiological disease research to be conducted by students from underrepresented groups. Others on the project include Ben Philpot, PhD, Associate Director of the Neuroscience Center, and...

Three teams of BCAS faculty, staff, postdocs, and students have been recognized for their efforts in North Carolina’s Miles for Wellness fitness challenge, a virtual, team-based walking initiative by and for the state employees of North Carolina. The BCAS Road Warriors 1 team took fifth place out of 252 teams...

Laura Ornelas, PhD, has been selected as a Mentee for the 2024 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) Underrepresented Minority Near-Peer Mentorship program. The ACNP URM Near-Peer Mentorship Program is designed to provide mentorship support from ACNP member mentors to underrepresented minorities who plan to enter or are early career scientists...

Associate Professor of Pharmacology Melissa Herman, PhD, was featured in one of the nation’s most popular science podcasts, Science Vs, in an episode that examines common misconceptions regarding vaping and health. Dr. Herman discussed her lab’s research using preclinical rodent models to examine how nicotine intake via vape exposure affects...

BCAS postdoctoral fellow Jessica Hoffman, PhD, is one of five postdoctoral scholars in 2023 to receive the Postdoctoral Award for Research Excellence (PARE), administered by the UNC Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. The PARE award recognizes outstanding research promise demonstrated by individual postdoctoral scholars. Dr. Hoffman is also a recent recipient...

Leslie Morrow, PhD, and her lab recently published their research on the deleterious interaction between the neurosteroid (3α,5α)3-hydroxypregnan-20-one (3α,5α-THP) and the mu-opioid system activation during forced swim stress in rats in the journal of Biomolecules. In a previous study, Dr. Morrow and her lab observed that 3α,5α-THP down-regulation of HPA...

Melissa Herman, PhD, and her lab recently published their research investigating the relationship between affective states and ethanol (EtOH) intake using male and female Sprague-Dawley rats in the journal Psychopharmacology. Dr. Herman and her team observed sex- and test- specific differences in basal affective behavior. In female rats only, depressive-like...