Endocannabinoid Regulation of Monoamines in Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders

The past decade has seen tremendous growth in the study of cannabinoid receptor signaling in brain.  The impact and consequences of cannabinoid modulation of monoaminergic (dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin) circuits is becoming more clear.  Scientists have shown significant interaction between these two systems in a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders such as affective disorders, multiple sclerosis, and pain or pain disorders.  The overarching goal of Endocannabinoid Regulation of Monoamines in Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders is to provide current information on advances in the field of endocannabinoid signaling and potential therapeutic applications with a particular emphasis on monoaminergic circuits.  ?

Elisabeth Van Bockstaele is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA.  She obtained her PhD from New York University and conducted her postdoctoral work at Cornell University Medical College in New York City. She served as Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Neurological Surgery and is the current founding Director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience in the College of Biomedical and Graduate Studies at Thomas Jefferson University. She has served on multiple grant review panels including serving as Chair of the Neuroimmunology, Neuroendocrinology and Behavior Study Section at the National Institutes of Health and she served as Chair of the Membership and Chapters Committee of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) and as a Member of the Committee on Neuroscience Departments and Programs and Professional Development Committee at SfN.  She was also a fellow in the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program at Drexel University College of Medicine. Dr. Van Bockstaele has devoted her scientific career to understanding the role of norepinephrine in stress-related illness, particularly as it relates to psychiatric disorders. Her research has primarily focused on preclinical studies examining the cellular adaptations of noradrenergic circuits to drugs of abuse (opiates, cannabinoids and psychostimulants) but more recently has expanded to include clinical investigations.  Ongoing research efforts are aimed at understanding stress-related psychiatric disorders, novel opiate detoxification approaches for counteracting norepinephrine over-activity following withdrawal from opiates as well as elucidating the impact of stress on vulnerability to substance abuse. Her laboratory is one of the only research groups studying interactions between the endocannabinoid and noradrenergic systems and her group employs state-of-the-art high-resolution neuroanatomical approaches with subcellular precision to understand the nature of state dependent interactions of this integrative system for the treatment of stress-induced anxiety disorders.