The Logrip Lab is directed by Dr. Marian Logrip.
Her research lab focuses on stress-alcohol interactions in male and female brains, with a specific interest in how adaptations to stress impact the brain's response to alcohol.
Since females are more susceptible to stress-related neuropsychiatic disorders we are investigating how this might cause greater problems with alcohol misuse.
As an undergraduate research assistant, you will direct research projects working alongside faculty and graduate students. If you are interested in joining our lab, please submit the Research Assistant application.
Apply nowI am an Assistant Professor in the Addiction Neuroscience area of the Department of Psychology. I received my Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco, and completed postdoctoral training in the Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders at The Scripps Research Institute prior to opening my lab at IUPUI in 2015.
My research studies sex differences in the neural substrates responsible for alcohol use disorders, stress-related disorders, and the intersection between them. We focus on circuitry involved in both stress and alcohol use disorders, to determine how these brain regions adapt differently in males and females, and whether sex differences in these neuroadaptations are responsible for different disease prevalence in males and females.
We use a variety of techniques - molecular biology, electrophysiology and behavior - so we can provide a more complete picture of what goes awry in comorbid alcohol- and stress-related disorders, with the hope of discovering novel targets for medication development that may improve available treatments for these disorders in both sexes.
Senior Research Associate, 2015
The Scripps Research Institute
Research Associate, 2013
The Scripps Research Institute
Ph.D., 2007
Neuroscience
University of California, San Francisco
B.S., 1997
Economics
University of Pennsylvania
Many mental illnesses differ in their prevalence in men and women, and it is important for developing improved treatments to understand the reasons for sex differences in susceptibility. In the Logrip Lab, we focus on understanding how the neural circuits that shape behavior differ in males and females, and what that means for reinforced behaviors. We are interested particularly in how past stress experience alters the brain, and what this means for future anxiety-like behavior, depressive-like behavior, and alcohol use.
Our research synthesizes multiple experimental techniques to generate a broad picture of neural remodeling after stress and binge-like alcohol use, and its effect on behavior. Our goal is to identify new targets for drug development, towards improving treatment of comorbid stress-related disorders, like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and alcohol use disorder. The lab breaks out its research into three main technical research domains.
Dr. Logrip thanks the following organizations for past/present research funding (note that funding does not equal endorsement of findings):
We use molecular biological techniques to understand how the point of communication between neurons - the synapse - changes after stress or binge-like alcohol intake. Understanding how these adaptations differ between males and females can identify possible targets for new medication development in both sexes.
We use slice electrophysiology to investigate how behavioral experiences, like stress or binge-like alcohol consumption, alter neuronal activity. We look at changes in how neurons behave in specific regions, as well as how the communication between neurons of interconnected brain regions are changed by experience, and what this means for neuronal responses to drugs like alcohol.
Disorders like PTSD significantly worsen people's chances for maintaining sobriety, and in many cases these effects are more severe in females. We use rodent behavioral models to measure how past stressors impact future drinking, as well as to test whether pharmacological or chemogenetic tools that reverse the stress-related molecular or circuit adaptations can also block related increases in drinking.
Volunteer undergraduate research assistant positions and honors research slots open from time to time in the lab. Dr. Logrip is happy to hear from IU Indianapolis undergraduates interested in participating in research, should an opening arise.
If you would like to be considered for such a position, please fill out the application in the link below.
Dr. Logrip is looking for new graduate students to join our research team as part of the Addiction Neuroscience Ph.D. program. Feel free to email Dr. Logrip for more information, and check out the Addiction Neuroscience graduate program page for more information about our graduate program and application procedures.
Shannon Roy
Research Technician
Claudia Rangel-Barajas, Ph.D.
Assistant Scientist
Kelly Moench
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sean Gainey
Brandon Shanahan
Maddie Beck
Elizabeth Evans
Ashley Jimenez
Alexa Soto
Brittany Bogan
Research Assistant 2016-19
Juan Sanchez
Research Assistant 2016-19
Jacob Hornung-Betz
Research Assistant 2016-18
Jordon Reyes
Research Assistant 2016-18
