GRADUATE
How does biological sex impact brain development?
Women are more affected at every stage of drug addiction; males are more affected by neuropsychiatric disorders that have origins in development. What causes these differences?
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In the McCarthy lab, I study how developmental processes may organize the brain regions and circuits involved in these diseases differentially in females and males, using the laboratory rat as a model.
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I use a variety of molecular techniques, including site-specific viral surgery and RNAscope highlighted in the fluorescent images below, in combination with behavioral assays to probe these systems.
UNDERGRADUATE
As an undergraduate at JMU, I completed an Honors Thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Rocky Parker. The lab studies the red-sided garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis), females of which secrete from their skin a sexual attractiveness pheromone that elicits courtship behavior in males. While males do not typically produce this pheromone, they can be stimulated to do so by treatment with estrogens. Elucidating this connection between hormone and pheromone is the heart of my thesis project, which utilized molecular techniques to explore the expression of steroid hormone receptors in the skin of male and female garter snakes both within and outside of the spring mating season.
Red-sided garter snakes are the northern-most reptile in the Western hemisphere. I took the photo on the right at the den we studied in Manitoba, Canada. The snakes form massive mating aggregations, shown here, during the spring mating season where many males will simultaneously court a single female (the female is the largest snake whose head is bottom right; all other animals in the photo are males). While in the field, I performed behavioral bioassays in order to select animals for use in my undergraduate thesis work.
