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overview
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My laboratory studies brain and behavior during development. In child studies, we examine cognitive concomitants and sequelae of genetic variants and medical conditions; these provide a natural manipulation of brain mechanisms that may be unrecognized as critical for key mental functions, particularly visual attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and motor dexterity. Our work is translational and we use results from child studies to guide the development of new animal models. Currently, we are studying the effects on brain and behavior of early chronic low-level lead exposure. In child studies, we have provided new evidence of a genetic variant (hPEPT2) that increases low blood lead burden and predicts unique working memory and motor deficits in young males exposed to low-level lead. In mouse low-level lead exposure studies, we have begun to characterize memory deficits using a novel odor recognition task and quantified loss of microglia in dentate gyrus following early chronic low-level lead exposure. As we attempt to replicate these first results, future studies, will test effects in an hPEPT2 transgenic mouse model.
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