Michael R. Bruchas

Biography

Stress can dramatically alter motivated behavior, leading to maladaptive decision-making, depression, anxiety, and addiction. The stress response is controlled by G-protein coupled (GPCR) neuromodulator receptors in the central and peripheral nervous system. A vast number of pharmaceutical agents directly target GPCRs. We are interested in discovering how GPCR receptor systems function in the context of stress-induced affective behaviors including anxiety, depression, pain, and addiction. We adopt a multidisciplinary, cutting-edge approaches including optogenetics and in vivo imaging to study the pharmacological, biochemical, physiological, and neurobiological basis of stress and affective behaviors.

Research Interest

behavior, G protein coupled receptors, neurobiology, pain, optogenetics, in vivo physiology, in vivo calcium imaging, psychiatry, depression, addiction, anxiety, signal transduction in vitro and in vivo, pharmacology; Neuromodulation and GPCR signaling in neural circuits of affective behavior.