Kyle P
- Research Program Mentor
PhD at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Expertise
Neuroscience of addiction and mental illness, genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in the brain, pharmaceuticals and pharmacology
Bio
My academic passions lie primarily in understanding how the brain is affected by mental illness, drug abuse, as well as degenerative disorders such as traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer's disease. All of these disorders are defined by underlying biological changes to the structure of DNA, the proteins on the cell surface, and the connections that these nerve cells have with cells in other brain regions and networks. However, these same processes are influenced by less defined factors such as learning, emotion, and cognition. My biggest personal interest right now is gardening. It really is fascinating to plant some seeds, care for them, and watch them grow and produce food for your family. This ties in quite well with my interest in creating new pickle recipes with various spices while using the scientific method and questionnaires to probe my friends and family about their taste.Project ideas
Effect of Traumatic Brain Injury on Behavior and Cognition
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are common in impact sports and combat zones. Some are severe immediately and cause severe bleeding in the brain, while others involve the slow accumulation of many small impacts and brain bleeds that progress. TBIs vastly affect cognition and memory, and cause accelerated neurodegeneration in patients. The goal of this project would be to understand the underlying factors that cause the lifelong problems and neurodegeneration.
Understanding the Mechanisms Underlying Drug Abuse
Addiction is a learned behavior that comes with the repeated use of stimulants, depressants, or narcotics. These different drug classes have very different mechanisms of action and affect people in very different ways, yet they all hijack innate learning mechanisms to drive a person to seek the drug above food, water, family, school, and work. The goal of this project would be to investigate one specific drug and how it hijacks the brain with repeated use.