Thomas L. Kash PhD

Dr. Thomas Kash is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and the John Andrews Distinguished Professor of Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his BS in Chemistry at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1999. Following this, Dr. Kash worked briefly at the medical department at Brookhaven National Labs under the guidance of Dr. Andrew Gifford before joining Dr. Neil Harrison’s lab at Cornell University Graduate College of Biomedical Science in New York City. While a student in Dr. Harrison’s lab Dr. Kash worked on understanding the structure and function of ligand-gated ion channels, in particular GABA-A receptors. In 2004, Dr. Kash moved to Dr. Danny Winder’s lab at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and began working on understanding how alcohol and peptides can modulate function in the extended amygdala. In 2009.

Dr. Kash started his lab at the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he has continued his efforts to understand how modulation of neuronal circuits can alter behavior. Research in the Kash lab has focused on understanding how stress and alcohol abuse can alter neuronal function in brain regions that regulate emotional behavior. This is performed using a multidisciplinary approach, ranging from behavioral analysis to detailed mechanistic signaling analysis. The major drive has been to understand how modulation of neuronal circuits can ameliorate pathological behavior associated with neuropsychiatric conditions.