Marina Picciotto, Ph.D.

Appointments & Promotions

  • Deputy Chair for Basic Research

Community Service

  • Scientific Advisory Board, One Mind for Research
  • Science Research Advisory Board, Hunter College High School, NY, NY

Grants & Patent Awards

  • Klarman Foundation Grant – Role of cholinergic signaling in eating disorders

Honors and Awards

  • Elected Member, Institute of Medicine
  • Council Member, Society for Neuroscience
  • Council Member, National Institute on Drug Abuse

Publications and Presentations

  • Picciotto, M.R., Higley, M.J. and Mineur, Y.S. (2012) Acetylcholine as a neuromodulator, Neuron, 76(1):116-29. PMC3466476
  • DiLeone, R.J., Taylor, J.R. and Picciotto, M.R. (2012) The drive to eat: comparisons and distinctions between mechanisms underlying food reward and drug addiction, Nature Neuroscience, 15(10):1330-5.
  • Zoli, M. and Picciotto, M.R. (2012) Nicotinic regulation of energy homeostasis, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 14(11):1270-90.
  • Jung, Y., Mulholland, P.J., Wiseman, S.L., Chandler, L.J. and Picciotto, M.R. (2012) Constitutive knockout of the membrane cytoskeleton protein beta adducin decreases mushroom spine density in the nucleus accumbens but does not prevent spine remodeling in response to cocaine, Eur J Neurosci, 37(1):1-9. PMC3538958
  • Dietrich, M.O., Bober, J., Ferreira, J.G., Tellez, L.A., Mineur, Y.S., Souza, D. O., Gao, X.-B., Picciotto, M.R., Araújo, I. A., Liu, Z.-W. and Horvath, T.L. (2012) AgRP neurons regulate development of dopamine neuronal plasticity and non food associated behaviors, Nature Neuroscience, 15(8):1108-10. PMC3411867
  • Saricicek, A., Esterlis, I., Maloney, K.H., Mineur, Y.S., Ruf, B.M., Muralidharan, A., Chen, J.I., Cosgrove, K.P., Kerestes, R., Gourley, S.L., Banasr, M., Ghose, S., Tamminga, C.A., Pittman, B., Bois, F., Tamagnan, G., Seibyl, J., Picciotto, M.R., Staley, J.K. and Bhagwagar, Z. (2012) Persistent β2*-nicotinic acetylcholinergic receptor dysfunction in major depressive disorder, Am J Psychiatry, 169(8):851-9. PMC3494404
  • Horst, N.K., Heath, C.J., Neugebauer, N.M., Kimchi, E.Y., Laubach, M. and Picciotto, M.R. (2012) Impaired auditory discrimination following perinatal nicotine exposure or β2 nAChR subunit deletion, Behavioural Brain Research, 231(1):170-80. PMC3334440
  • Yan, Y., Pushparaj, A., Gamaleddin, I., Steiner, R.C., Picciotto, M.R., Roder, J., and Le Foll, B. (2012) Nicotine-taking and nicotine seeking in C57Bl/6J mice with no prior training, Behavioural Brain Research, 230(1):34-9. PMC3310267
  • Cosgrove, K.P., Esterlis, I., McKee, S.A., Bois, F., Seibyl, J.P., Mazure, C.M., Krishnan-Sarin, S., Staley, J.K., Picciotto, M.R. and O’Malley, S.S. (2012) Sex and hormones regulate availability of β2*-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in recently abstinent tobacco smokers and nonsmokers, Archives of General Psychiatry, 69(4):418-27.
  • Holmes, F.E., Armenaki, A., Iismaa, T.P., Shine, J., Picciotto, M.R., Wynick, D. and Zachariou, V. (2012) Galanin modulates opiate withdrawal via galanin receptor 1, Psychopharmacology, 220(3):619-25. PMC3324978
  • Guez-Barber, D., Fonous, S., Harvey, B., Picciotto, M.R. and Hope, B.T. (2012) FACS purification of immunolabeled cell types from adult rat brain. J Neurosci Methods, 203(1):10-8. PMC3221768

Teaching Activities

Courses

  • Pharmacology 500 - CNS pharmacology conference group for 2nd year medical students (with Bob Beech).
  • Lectures:  Psychiatry residents – Brain Camp “Introduction to Neuroscience”
  • NSCI 507b - Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Neurological Disease “Molecular Basis of Drug Addiction”
  • Psychiatry 500b - Biological Basis of Behavior  “Molecular Basis for Learning & Memory”
  • Child Study Center Residents – Molecular genetics of developmental neuroscience
  • “Effects of nicotine on development of cortical connections and consequences for attention and cognitive behavior”