Sheryl G. Beck, PhD

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				Sheryl G. Beck, Ph.D. 4 North ARC, Room 402A Children's Hospital of Philadelphia 3615 Civic Center Bouldevard Philadelphia, PA 19312 telephone: 215-590-0651, 0654 fax: 215-590-4107 email: becks@email.chop.edu http://stokes.chop.edu/web/neuro/Members.htm Click here for selected publications since Dr. Beck's arrival at Penn RESEARCH INTERESTS Effects of stress, antidepressants and corticosteroids on serotonergic-limbic system pathways. RESEARCH TECHNIQUES whole cell visualized electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry, behavior, cell biology RESEARCH SUMMARY I am investigating how stress hormones and sex hormones alter brain function and the subsequent effects on the development and treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders such as depression, anxiety, epilepsy and stroke. My laboratory is working on defining the cellular mechanism underlying the changes in neural activity induced by stress and sex hormones. Identifying these changes may lead to a better understanding of how these hormones are involved in the protection against toxicity, the development of disease states such as depression and anxiety, and may lead to new ways to treat these disorders. To assess how chronic behavioral stress and treatment with stress or sex hormones alter neural activity, I am using electrophysiological, anatomical and molecular biological methods. More specifically, my research involves the use of extracellular, intracellular and whole cell recording techniques, immunohistochemistry, antisense oligonucleotides, in situ hybridization and single cell aRNA amplification. This battery of diverse techniques is a useful strategy to identify those aspects of neural activity that are altered by stress or sex hormones and may provide important information on the cellular mechanisms underlying the development and treatment. KEY WORDS: serotonin, raphe, hippocampus, stress, HPA axis, electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry, corticosteroids, GABA, glutamate