Nathan is currently working with Dr. Scott Steffensen at Brigham Young University. Dr. Steffensen primarily focuses his research on addiction and memory in his laboratory.
Nathan is working on the following projects:
- Pharmacology of Ethanol-induced Inhibition of Dopamine Release in the Nucleus Accumbens
- Alcohol Modulation of Dopamine Release with Dependence
- Therapeutic Effects of Light Stimulation for Recovery of Dopamine Levels in the Nucleus Accumbens
- Baicalein Modulation of Addiction Recovery
- Spectrophotometry of Dopamine, DOPAC, and DOPAL
Many of these studies are performed on laboratory mice either in vivo or in vitro. However, once the effectiveness has been established, the experiments will be performed behaviorally with lab animals and then performed on human subjects to develop clinical application and validity.
Laboratory Skills:
- Lab Management
- Inventory and Supply Ordering
- Equipment Maintenance
- Scheduling
- Proper handling / care of laboratory mice and rats (AALAS Certified)
- Breeding and caretaking for rodent colonies
- Survival rodent surgery
- Vibratome brain slicing
- Proper laboratory techniques
- Laboratory unit conversions
- Taring, scaling, and measuring chemicals / pharmaceutical preparations
- Microscope care and maintenance
- Carbon fiber electrode (microelectrode) preparation and cutting
- Glass electrode (microelectrode) preparation and cutting
- Stimulation electrode preparation
- Operation of Fast-Scan Cyclic Voltammetry (FSCV)
- In vitro setup and experimentation of neuronal slices
- In vivo setup and experimentation of laboratory mice / rats
- In vivo single neuron recording experimentation
- Patch Clamping
- Behavioral Studies
- Statistical analysis of acquired data
- LabVIEW programming
Other Research Interests:
- Application of neurofeedback utilizing EEG to train brain waves and overcome characteristics of addiction
- Neurobiological connection of emotion and therapeutics
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