Jennifer Thompson, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Interests
My research focuses on the influence of Pavlovian conditioning on opioid-induced immunomodulation. Despite a wealth of data indicating that opioids can modulate the immune system, little is known regarding the neural mechanisms that underlie the immune alterations induced by drug related cues. Recent findings have shown that environmental stimuli that had been previously associated with heroin delivery elicit immune alterations similar to those observed with actual heroin use. My current project will determine the role that the basolateral amygdala plays in these alterations.
Selected Publications
Szczytkowski J.L. & Lysle D.T. (2007) Conditioned effects of heroin on the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase in the rat are susceptible to extinction and latent inhibition. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2007 Jan 9.
Loza M.J., Luppi P., Kiefer K., Martin E.S., Szczytkowski J.L., Perussia B. (2005) Human peripheral CD2-/lo T cells: an extra-thymic population of early-differentiated developing T cells. International Immunity. Sep 17 (9):1213-25.
Karp J.D., Szczytkowski J.L., Gentile C.F. (2004) Noradrenergic responses of peripheral organs to cyclophosphamide in mice. Life Science. Sep 10;75(17):2077-89.
Karp J.D., Szczytkowski J.L. (2003) Cyclophosphamide induces dose and time-dependent elevations in spleen norepinephrine levels of BALB/c mice. Neuroscience Letters. 344(2):117-21.
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