Liesl B. Jones

Research:

My career as a graduate student, postdoctoral fellow and now as an Assistant Professor has been dedicated to working on disorders that are developmental as their origin. As a graduate student I worked in Dr. Pat Levitt's laboratory examining changes in cortical development due to prenatal exposure to cocaine. It was here that I was first exposed to behavioral disorders in children. We developed an animal model to use to examine what happens to the brain if it is exposed to cocaine in-utero. Cocaine affects the dopaminergic, serotonergic, and neuroepinepherine systems. We chose to examine how cocaine affects two of these systems by examining cortical areas that receive input from one or the other neurotransmitter. We chose to examine the dopaminergic system and the serotonergic system by looking at cellular development in the anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal and primary visual cortex. The anterior cingulate cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex receives a dopaminergic innervation and is important in processing information dealing with learning, memory, attention and social behaviors. Primary visual cortex receives a dense serotonergic innervation and is a primary sensory region. Our work showed that disruption of the developing dopaminergic system leads to changes in outgrowth of dendrites in pyramidal cells. This work led me to want to better understand the dopaminergic system.

Current projects in my laboratory are aimed at better understanding the etiology of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia appears to be a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. My laboratory uses classical and more modern techniques to better understand the changes in different cortical areas that may bring about the disease. The primary project in the laboratory examines dendritic morphology of projection neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex an area known to be involved in schizophrenia. We use immunohistochemistry as well as tract tracing methods to perform density and three-dimensional morphological analysis of the neurons.

We are also examining Huntington's Chorea using similar techniques. This is an inherited genetic disorder. This is a progressive disease that can manifest itself at any age but is usually seen in adults.

Future work in the lab is aimed at expanding on the present data for both projects as well as moving into new areas. I am currently working on a grant to get funding to look at cellular architecture in Autism. There are a few brain banks that have tissue available to do postmortem work. We will be submitting a grant to NIH in June to look at dendritic morphology in autism.

Publications:

* Murphy EH, Hammer JG, Schumann MD, Groce MY, Wang XH, Jones L., Romano AG, Harvey JA. (1995) The rabbit as a model for studies of cocaine exposure in utero. Laboratory Animal Science. 45: 163-168.

* Jones L., Fischer I., Levitt P. (1996) Non Uniform alteration of dendritic development in the cerebral cortex following prenatal cocaine exposure. Cerebral Cortex. 6:431-445.

* Levitt P., Reinoso B., and Jones L. (1998) The critical impact of early cellular environment on neuronal development. Preventive Med. 27:180-183.

* Byne W, Lasco MS, Kemether E, Akbar Shinwari, Edgar MA, Morgello S, Jones LB, Tobet S. (2000) The interstitial nuclei of the human anterior hypothalamus: an investigation of sexual variation in volume and cell size, number and density. Brain Res. 856:254-8.

* Jones L., Stanwood G., Reinosos B., Wang HY., Friedman E., Levitt P. (2000) Cocaine-induced dysfunction of dopamine D1 receptor signaling in-utero regulates differentiation of cerebral cortical neurons. J. Neurosci. In Press.

* Jones L., Johnson N., Byne W., (2001) Alterations in MAP2 staining in area 9 and 32 of schizophrenic prefrontal cortex. Submitted.

* Byne W., Buchsbaum MS., Kemether E., Purohit P., Haroutunian V., Jones L. (2001) Postmortem assessment of thalamic nuclear volumes in schizophrenia. Submitted.

Chapter:

Byne W., Jones L., Kemether E., Haroutunian H., and Davis KL (1997) Neurobiology of schizophrenia In: The Neurochemistry of Schizophrenia. (Charney DS, Nestler EJ, and Bunny BS, edts.) Oxford University Press, New York. In press.

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