Susanna Molas

Susanna Molas
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School | UMMS · Department of Neurobiology

PhD in Neuroscience

About

22
Publications
2,988
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474
Citations
Introduction
Current research goals are focused on circuit and neuronal/molecular analysis of motivational and emotional behaviors. We use integrative and multidisciplinary research strategies that include Cre/Lox technology, viral-mediated gene transfer, fiber photometry combined with optogenetics/biosensors, electrophysiological recordings, pharmacology and protein/RNA biology, together with complex mouse behavioral paradigms.
Additional affiliations
May 2014 - April 2021
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
Position
  • PostDoc Position
July 2012 - March 2014
Centre for Genomic Regulation
Position
  • Research Assistant
January 2008 - June 2012
Centre for Genomic Regulation
Position
  • PhD
Description
  • Nicotine addiction phenotypes in a BAC transgenic mouse model overexpressing the CHRNA5/A3/B4 genomic cluster
Education
September 2007 - June 2008
Pompeu Fabra University
Field of study
  • Biomedical Research
September 2003 - June 2007
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Field of study
  • Biotechnology

Publications

Publications (22)
Preprint
Full-text available
Alcohol consumption remains a significant global health challenge, causing millions of direct and indirect deaths annually. Intriguingly, recent work has highlighted the prefrontal cortex, a major brain area that regulates inhibitory control of behaviors, whose activity becomes dysregulated upon alcohol abuse. However, whether an endogenous mechani...
Preprint
Full-text available
The selection of appropriate defensive behaviors in the face of potential threat is fundamental to survival. However, after repeated exposures to threatening stimuli that did not signal real danger, an animal must learn to adjust and optimize defensive behaviors. Despite extensive research on innate threat processing, little is known how individual...
Article
Full-text available
Animals often need to assess whether a member of their species (a conspecific) that they have not met before will be a friend or a foe. As such, most adult animals would tend to investigate an unfamiliar peer over one which they were already acquainted with (Tapper and Molas, 2020).
Article
Full-text available
Animals are inherently motivated to explore social novelty cues over familiar ones, resulting in a novelty preference (NP), although the behavioral and circuit bases underlying NP are unclear. Combining calcium and neurotransmitter sensors with fiber photometry and optogenetics in mice, we find that mesolimbic dopamine (DA) neurotransmission is str...
Article
Full-text available
Stress coping involves innate and active motivational behaviors that reduce anxiety under stressful situations. However, the neuronal bases directly linking stress, anxiety, and motivation are largely unknown. Here, we show that acute stressors activate mouse GABAergic neurons in the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN). Stress-coping behavior including s...
Article
Full-text available
Midbrain dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are engaged by rewarding stimuli and encode reward prediction error to update goal-directed learning. However, recent data indicate that VTA DAergic neurons are functionally heterogeneous with emerging roles in aversive signaling, salience, and novelty, based in part on ana...
Article
Full-text available
A critical brain area implicated in nicotine dependence is the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) located in the ventral midbrain and consisting primarily of GABAergic neurons. Previous studies indicate that IPN GABAergic neurons contribute to expression of somatic symptoms of nicotine withdrawal; however, whether IPN neurons are dynamically regulated d...
Article
Novelty triggers an increase in orienting behavior that is critical to evaluate the potential salience of unknown events. As novelty becomes familiar upon repeated encounters, this increase in response rapidly habituates as a form of behavioral adaptation underlying goal-directed behaviors. Many neurodevelopmental, psychiatric and neurodegenerative...
Article
Full-text available
Background Dopamine (DA) is hypothesized to modulate anxiety-like behavior although the precise role of DA in anxiety behaviors and the complete anxiety network in the brain have yet to be elucidated. Recent data indicate dopaminergic projections from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) innervates the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), but how the IPN res...
Article
Full-text available
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of mortality in the world. The limited number of smoking cessation aids currently available are minimally effective, highlighting the need for novel therapeutic interventions. We describe a genome-wide approach to identify potential candidates for such interventions. Next-generation sequencing was perfor...
Article
Novelty preference (NP) is an evolutionarily conserved, essential survival mechanism often dysregulated in neuropsychiatric disorders. NP is mediated by a motivational dopamine signal that increases in response to novel stimuli, thereby driving exploration. However, the mechanism by which once-novel stimuli transition to familiar stimuli is unknown...
Article
While innovative modern neuroscience approaches have aided in discerning brain circuitry underlying negative emotional behaviors including fear and anxiety responses, how these circuits are recruited in normal and pathological conditions remains poorly understood. Recently, genetic tools that selectively manipulate single neuronal populations have...
Article
Full-text available
Addiction involves long-lasting maladaptive changes including development of disruptive drug-stimuli associations. Nicotine-induced neuroplasticity underlies the development of tobacco addiction but also, in regions such as the hippocampus, the ability of this drug to enhance cognitive capabilities. Here, we propose that the genetic locus of suscep...
Article
The involvement of the cholinergic system in learning, memory and attention has long been recognized, although its neurobiological mechanisms are not fully understood. Recent evidence identifies the endogenous cholinergic signaling via nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) as key players in determining the morphological and functional maturati...
Article
Background and purpose: Recent data have indicated that α3β4* neuronal nicotinic (n) ACh receptors may play a role in morphine dependence. Here we investigated if nACh receptors modulate morphine physical withdrawal. Experimental approaches: To assess the role of α3β4* nACh receptors in morphine withdrawal, we used a genetic correlation approach...
Article
Full-text available
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are ligand-gated pentameric ion channels that account for the effects of nicotine. Recent genetic studies have highlighted the importance of variants of the CHRNA5/A3/B4 genomic cluster in human nicotine dependence. Among these genetic variants those found in non-coding segments of the cluster may contribu...
Article
Recent studies have revealed that sequence variants in genes encoding the α3/α5/β4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits are associated with nicotine dependence. In this study, we evaluated two specific aspects of executive functioning related to drug addiction (impulsivity and working memory) in transgenic mice over expressing α3/α5/β4 nicotin...

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