Elinor Lewis

Research Description

Elinor works jointly in the Whistler and Kim labs where she studies the role of the D3 dopamine receptor in aversion and tolerance to second generation antipsychotic medications. Second generation antipsychotics (SGAs) are important and widely used clinical tools for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and others. However, they can have extreme negative side effects including catatonia, movement disorders, depressive states, and metabolic problems. Despite being regularly prescribed for decades, the effect/side effect profiles of SGAs are not well-understood, and many of these side effects can outweigh the benefits of the drug. My previous research identified in vitro differences in downstream cellular signaling among various SGAs at the D3 dopamine receptor, even though their mechanism was thought to be through the D2 dopamine receptor. I am hoping these differences could help explain effect/side-effect variability of these drugs and variable development of tolerance. I now use in vivo fiber photometry and various mouse behavior assays in the nucleus accumbens to understand how these drugs are causing aversion and how tolerance develops to various side-effects. I am also planning to use optogenetic tools and slice physiology to better understand how these drugs variably cause plasticity in the brain’s reward circuitry with the hopes that a better understanding of this could help future research to combat these horrible side-effects.