Stephanie Dulawa, Ph.D.
Young Investigator

Dr. Dulawa received her A.B. at Occidental College, her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of California at San Diego, and her postdoctoral training at Columbia University in New York, NY.

The goal of her lab is to understand how mood is regulated. Dr. Dulawa’s aim is to identify the molecular mechanisms and neural circuits that modulate anxiety and depression using mouse models by studying the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the antidepressant response. Although antidepressant treatment increases synaptic monoamines within minutes to hours, the therapeutic effects of antidepressants require chronic administration (weeks) to emerge. This long-term adaptive changes to chronic antidepressant treatment mediate the therapeutic response, although the mechanisms underlying this effect have not been determined. One substantial barrier to elucidating the mechanisms underlying the antidepressant response has been a lack of animal models that are sensitive to the chronic effects of antidepressants. The lab has developed novel animal models in which mice exhibit behavioral responses that emerge during chronic, but not short-term, antidepressant treatment. To dissect the mechanisms underlying the behavioral responses to chronic antidepressant treatment, she uses a combination of molecular, genetic engineering (including tTA/tetO inducible gene expression systems), and pharmacological techniques. Dr. Dulawa is currently using these techniques to study the role of a number of molecules, including elements of the serotonin system. She is also exploring the mechanisms by which early environmental factors regulate anxiety, depression, and the antidepressant response by combining embryo transfer and cross-fostering strategies with gene expression analysis.

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