Tamara J. Phillips PhD

Tamara Phillips was ongoing research in the laboratory is focused on the genetic dissection of behavioral traits associated with risk for the development of alcohol and drug use disorders. Through both single gene and gene network analyses, our ultimate goal is to identify druggable targets for innovative and effective therapeutics. Our research utilizes genetic animal models to study simple and complex addiction-related traits. Some examples of simpler traits include acute stimulation and depression; changes in incoordination; and altered body temperature. More complex traits include operant self-administration as a measure of drug reinforcement; voluntary free-choice consumption as a measure directly translational to human drug use; conditioned place preference as a measure of drug reward; conditioned taste aversion as a measure of sensitivity to aversive drug effects; and sensitization and tolerance as measures of behavioral and neural adaptation.

In addition, some behaviors are measured to examine their co-morbidity with drug susceptibility measures, such as elevated zero maze, light: dark box, and open field behavior as measures of anxiety-like behavior; forced swim as a measure of depression-like behavior; and Morris water maze and novel object recognition as measures of cognitive ability. Mice with naturally-occurring genetic variants or engineered or selectively bred to possess genetic alterations are utilized in pharmacological, genetic mapping, and gene expression studies to identify mechanisms underlying differences in drug risk and response. We are currently focusing most of our attention on two drugs, alcohol and methamphetamine, due to the current directorship of the Portland Alcohol Research Center (PARC) and past role as scientific director of the Methamphetamine Abuse Research Center (MARC).