About

Dr. Faccidomo is a behavioral pharmacologist who received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from Tufts University where she studied the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie individual differences in the expression of alcohol-heightened aggressive and social behavior. Her post-doctoral training at UNC with Dr. Clyde Hodge focused on using pre-clinical models of alcohol use disorders to identify glutamatergic neural mechanisms that modulate excessive alcohol self-administration, reinforcement and reinstatement. Her current work with Dr. Hodge focuses on understanding the role of auxiliary glutamate receptor protein, TARP γ-8, in mechanisms of both drug and alcohol reward and reinforcement. The TARP γ-8 protein is an ideal candidate for targeted pharmacotherapy because it has very discrete anatomical specificity in the brain. Her studies use a genetic and a pharmacological approach, to ask whether TARP γ-8 is a critical mechanism that regulates alcohol, cocaine and morphine reward, learning and associated anxiety. An emerging secondary research interest is to understand the synergistic interaction between chronic alcohol use and the development and expression of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.