Michelle Jacobs, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics
E-mail: michelle.jacobs@mssm.edu
Tel: (212) 241-9975

Mailing Address

One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1603, New York NY 10029

Location

Annenberg Building, 1468 Madison Avenue, Room 19-70

Training and Education

Ph.D. (2008) Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

B.A. (2000) Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

Current Research Interests

Vulnerability to heroin abuse appears to have one of the strongest genetic loads compared to other addictive substances and significant research attention has been given to understanding the neurobiology of opiates. In addition to genetic components, studies over the past decade have clearly implicated a role of epigenetic mechanisms in addiction disorders, emphasizing the importance of genetic and environmental interactions in individual vulnerability. It is the goal of my project(s) to determine the extent to which genetic and epigenetic contributions may play a role in the vulnerability to heroin abuse.

Publications

Rula EY, Lagrange AH, Jacobs MM, Hu N, MacDonald RL, Emeson RB. Developmental modulation of GABAA receptor function by RNA editing. Journal of Neuroscience (2008) 28: 6196-6201.

Singh M, Kesterson RA, Jacobs MM, Joers JA, Gore JC, Emeson RB. Hyperphagia-mediated obesity in transgenic mice misexpressing the RNA editing enzyme ADAR2. Journal of Biological Chemistry (2007) Aug 3; 282(31): 22448-59.

McCauley JL, Olson LM, Delahanty R, Amin T, Nurmi EL, Organ EL, Jacobs MM, Folstein SE, Haines JL, Sutcliffe JS. A linkage disequilibrium map of the 1-Mb 15q12 GABAA receptor subunit cluster and association to autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics B Neuropsychiatric Genetics (2004) Nov 15; 131(1): 51-9.

Nurmi EL, Amin T, Olson LM, Jacobs MM, McCauley JL, Lam AY, Organ EL, Folstein SE, Haines JL, Sutcliffe JS. Dense linkage disequilibrium mapping in the 15q11-q13 maternal expression domain yields evidence for association in autism. Molecular Psychiatry (2003) Jun; 8(6): 624-34, 570.