
Brooke Nichole DulkaCardinal Health, Inc.
Brooke Nichole Dulka
Doctor of Philosophy
About
25
Publications
10,285
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213
Citations
Introduction
As a scientist and writer, I am committed to fostering critical thinking and protecting data integrity.
Before my transition into medical writing, I was an academic neuroscientist. My previous research characterized neural circuits driving stress resilience, and I also investigated the link between protein degradation in the brain and cognitive decline. My recent writing efforts have focused on oncology/hematology. I am also interested in suicide prevention and mental health.
Additional affiliations
Education
August 2013 - August 2018
August 2007 - December 2011
Publications
Publications (25)
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is essential for memory processes. The present study tested whether proteolytic cleavage of proBDNF into mature BDNF (mBDNF) within the basolateral amygdala (BLA) regulates the consolidation of defeat-related memories. We found that acute social defeat increases the expression of mBDNF, but not proBDNF, in t...
Acute social defeat represents a naturalistic form of conditioned fear and is an excellent model in which to investigate the biological basis of stress resilience. While there is growing interest in identifying biomarkers of stress resilience, until recently, it has not been feasible to associate levels of large numbers of neurochemicals and metabo...
Stress is a contributing factor in the etiology of several mood and anxiety disorders, and social defeat models are used to investigate the biological basis of stress-related psychopathologies. Male Syrian hamsters are highly aggressive and territorial, but after social defeat they exhibit a conditioned defeat (CD) response which is characterized b...
Tremendous individual differences exist in stress responsivity and social defeat stress is a key approach for identifying cellular mechanisms of stress susceptibility and resilience. Syrian hamsters show reliable territorial aggression, but after social defeat they exhibit a conditioned defeat (CD) response characterized by increased submission and...
Introduction
Initially approved for the fifth‐line or later therapeutic setting, the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T‐cell regimen ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta‐cel) was recently approved for second‐line (2L) treatment in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). Oncology practitioners use clinical trials to inform treatment, but real‐world...
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Background: Studies suggest that PARPi agents work best in cancers, including metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), that have mutations in DNA repair pathways regulated by homologous recombination repair ( HRR) genes . The first PARPis for prostate cancer (olaparib for HRR-mutated and rucaparib for BRCA-mutated CRPC) were app...
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Background: Genomic profiling (GP) may help identify novel, targeted breast cancer (BC) treatments. Increased utilization and technology of GP, including options such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify mutations (e.g., PI3K, PTEN, and AKT) among patients with BC, has allowed for improved care and outcomes. Yet, there are limited...
Social experience can generate neural plasticity that changes how individuals respond to stress. Winning aggressive encounters alters how animals respond to future challenges and leads to increased plasma testosterone concentrations and androgen receptor (AR) expression in the social behavior neural network. In this project, our aim was to identify...
Aging is marked by an accumulation of damaged and modified brain proteins, and the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is important for cellular protein degradation. Recent work has established a critical role for the UPS in memory and synaptic plasticity, but the role of the UPS in age-related cognitive decline remains poorly understood. We trained...
Combining behavioral approaches with innovative chemistry techniques is an important first step toward characterizing neurochemicals that could potentially serve as biomarkers related to the prevention, treatment, or diagnosis of psychopathologies such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we describe the integration of acute social defea...
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a critical role in stress resilience through top-down inhibition of key stress-sensitive limbic and hindbrain structures, including the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). In a model of experience-dependent stress resistance, socially dominant Syrian hamsters display fewer signs of anxiety following acute so...
Aging is associated with cognitive decline, including impairments in the ability to accurately form and recall memories. Some behavioral and brain changes associated with aging are evident as early as middle age, making the understanding of associated neurobiological mechanisms essential to aid in efforts aimed at slowing cognitive decline througho...
Brain aging is accompanied by an accumulation of damaged proteins, which results from deterioration of cellular quality control mechanisms and decreased protein degradation. The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is the primary proteolytic mechanism responsible for targeted degradation. Recent work has established a critical role of the UPS in memor...
Stress is a well-known risk factor for psychopathology and rodent models of social defeat have strong face, etiological, construct and predictive validity for these conditions. Syrian hamsters are highly aggressive and territorial, but after an acute social defeat experience they become submissive and no longer defend their home territory, even fro...
Understanding the cellular mechanisms that control resistance and vulnerability to stress is an important step toward identifying novel targets for the prevention and treatment of stress-related mental illness. In Syrian hamsters, dominant and subordinate animals exhibit different behavioral and physiological responses to social defeat stress, with...
Metabolomics of brain tissue following acute social stress could result in discovery of novel biomarkers.
Conflict among individuals is one of the most common forms of stressors experienced across a variety of species, including humans. Social defeat models in mice produce two phenotypic behavioral responses characterized by prolonged social avoidance (susceptibility) or continued social interaction (resistance). The resistant phenotype has been propos...
Though much attention has been given to the neural structures that underlie the long-term consolidation of contextual memories, little is known about the mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of memory precision. Here, we demonstrate a rapid time-dependent decline in memory precision in GABAB(1a) receptor knockout mice. First, we show that GAB...
Questions
Questions (7)
I have a problem with sectioning brains on a Leica cyrostat. We are trying to take 20 um coronal sections (which we have had no problem doing in the past) but it looks like the cryostat is taking extra thick sections (even though it is set at 20 um).
Any tips to get the correct thickness of our tissue slices?
I'm looking to transfect rat hippocampal neurons (and possibly amygdala) with an AAV vector but I am unsure which AAV serotype to use. I want good local transfection and minimal retrograde/anterograde transport. AAV8 or AAV5 is what I was thinking. Any advice?
CNO (clozapine n-oxide) is the ligand for DREADD experiments. I have made a stock solution but am not sure what temperature to store it at.
Double labeling c-Fos + CTB cells in the infralimbic cortex
Looking for papers describing PVN to DRN projections
I want to use social defeat to stress female C57/BL6 mice. Has anyone had any success doing this? What works and what doesn't?