Resume

• 2009

  English

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

  Psychology: Cognition and Neuroscience

  University of Saskatchewan

• 2005

  Bachelor of Arts Honors

  Psychology

  University of Saskatchewan

• transcardial perfusion

  Microscopy

  Stereotaxic surgery

  in Vivo Electrophysiology

  neurogenesis

  ELISA

  Behavioral Neuroscience

  Electrophysiology

  Anatomy

  Molecular Biology

  behavioural pharmacology

  Western Blotting

  Immunohistochemistry

  DREADDs

  Neuroscience

  Statistics

  fear conditioning

  Biochemistry

  Optogenetics

  extracellular matrix proteins

  Novelty and Novel Objects Increase c-Fos Immunoreactivity in Mossy Cells in the Mouse Dentate Gyrus

  Helen E Scharfman

  Yi-Ling Lu

  Hannah L Bernstein

  Novelty and Novel Objects Increase c-Fos Immunoreactivity in Mossy Cells in the Mouse Dentate Gyrus

  Lisa Kalynchuk

  Wendie Marks

  April Lussier

  Axel Guskjolen

  Neil Fournier

  Amygdala kindling disrupts trace and delay fear conditioning with parallel changes in Fos protein expression throughout the limbic brain.

  Hector Caruncho

  Lisa Kalynchuk

  Axel Guskjolen

  Rodent models as tools for discovering novel therapeutic targets in the brain: The case of epilepsy

  Lisa Kalynchuk

  Hector Caruncho

  April Lussier

  Erin Sterner

  D.R. AndersenE

  Neil Fournier

  Hippocampus

  The effect of amygdala kindling on hippocampal neurogenesis coincides with decreased reelin and DISC1 expression in the adult dentate gyrus.

  Lisa Kalynchuk

  Hector Caruncho

  Wendie Marks

  Axel Guskjolen

  Limbic but not non-limbic kindling impairs conditioned fear and promotes plasticity of NPY and its Y2 receptor.

  Lisa Kalynchuk

  JM Olivares

  T Rivera-Baltanas

  Milan Mitchell

  Raquel Romay-Tallon

  Kyle Brymer

  Hector J Caruncho

  Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

  Reelin-related disturbances in depression: Implications for translational studies

  Lisa E Kalynchuk

  Hector J Caruncho

  Nikita Nogovitsyn

  Selective plasticity of hippocampal GABAergic interneuron populations following kindling of different brain regions

  Lisa Kalynchuk

  Hector Caruncho

  Kyle Brymer

  Aberrant hippocampal neurogenesis after limbic kindling: Relationship to BDNF and hippocampal-dependent memory.

  Lisa Kalynchuk

  Axel Guskjolen

  Wendie Marks

  Neil Fournier

  Experimental Neurology

  Impaired recruitment of seizure-generated neurons into functional memory networks of the adult dentate gyrus following long-term amygdala kindling.

  Helen Scharfman

  David Alcantara-Gonzalez

  John LaFrancois

  Swati Jain

  Previous studies suggest that reducing the numbers of adult‐born neurons in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the mouse increases susceptibility to severe continuous seizures (status epilepticus; SE) evoked by systemic injection of the convulsant kainic acid (KA). However

  it was not clear if the results would be the same for other ways to induce seizures

  or if SE‐induced damage would be affected. Therefore

  we used pilocarpine

  which induces seizures by a different mechanism than KA. Also

  we quantified hippocampal damage after SE. In addition

  we used both loss‐of‐function and gain‐of‐function methods in adult mice. We hypothesized that after loss‐of‐function

  mice would be more susceptible to pilocarpine‐induced SE and SE‐associated hippocampal damage

  and after gain‐of‐function

  mice would be more protected from SE and hippocampal damage after SE. For loss‐of‐function

  adult neurogenesis was suppressed by pharmacogenetic deletion of dividing radial glial precursors. For gain‐of‐function

  adult neurogenesis was increased by conditional deletion of pro‐apoptotic gene Bax in Nestin‐expressing progenitors. Fluoro‐Jade C (FJ‐C) was used to quantify neuronal injury and video‐electroencephalography (video‐EEG) was used to quantify SE. Pilocarpine‐induced SE was longer in mice with reduced adult neurogenesis

  SE had more power and neuronal damage was greater. Conversely

  mice with increased adult‐born neurons had shorter SE

  SE had less power

  and there was less neuronal damage. The results suggest that adult‐born neurons exert protective effects against SE and SE‐induced neuronal injury.

  Adult neurogenesis in the mouse dentate gyrus protects the hippocampus from neuronal injury following severe seizures

  Botterill

  The Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research

  University of Saskatchewan

  Saskatoon

  Saskatchewan

  Canada

  Psychology 242: Physiological Psychology

  University Instructor

  University of Saskatchewan

  Saskatoon

  Saskatchewan

  Canada

  Thesis: Cognitive impairment and aberrant plasticity in the kindling preparation of epilepsy

  PHD Student

  University of Saskatchewan

  Orangeburg

  New York

  Helen Scharfman's laboratory (http://www.scharfmanlab.com/ScharfmanLab/Home.html)

  Postdoctoral Researcher

  The Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research

  Member

  Society for Neuroscience

  Member

  International Behavioral Neuroscience Society