The Mangieri lab combines behavioral testing and ex vivo electrophysiology to examine how ethanol exposure and/or neuroimmune signaling pathways regulate cellular physiology and synaptic transmission in the brain.
We are housed in the UT Austin College of Pharmacy’s Division of Pharmacology & Toxicology. We are also a part of the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research.
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Our research incorporates behavioral pharmacology with electrophysiological techniques in order to understand how alcohol interacts with the brain’s immune system (the neuroimmune system) to drive neurophysiological adaptations that promote excessive alcohol consumption.
Regina Mangieri, Ph.D.
Dr. Regina Mangieri is Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the College of Pharmacy at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Mangieri graduated summa cum laude from Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL, with a B.A. in Psychology and minor in Mathematics in 2002. She obtained her Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 2008 from the University of California, Irvine. She performed her postdoctoral training from 2008 – 2013 at The University of Texas at Austin, during which time she was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). She currently heads the Target Validation Electrophysiology Core of the NIAAA-sponsored Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism-Neuroimmune Consortium.
Download Regina’s full Curriculum Vitae.
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Heather Aziz, MS, RLATg
Heather received a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Maryland at College Park in 2010. She received a M.S. in Laboratory Animal Science from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2016. Additionally, she holds her LATG through the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). Prior to her time at the University of Texas, Heather managed the immunocompromised rodent breeding colony in the Cancer Center Isolation Facility at Duke University. Heather is currently investigating sex-differences in glutamatergic neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens, as well as supporting the Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism (INIA)-Neuroimmune by collecting electrophysiology data for other members of the consortium. Heather’s interests outside of lab include dinosaurs. Yes, really.
Research Gate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Heather_Aziz
Email: heather.radford@utexas.edu
Daniela Carrizales
Daniela is currently a research technician in the Mangieri lab. Daniela’s research interests include neurodevelopmental disorders, mechanisms of addiction and alcohol dependence, as well as the effects of chronic stress. Daniela plans to attend a doctoral graduate school program in the field of neuroscience, particularly in behavioral, cellular-molecular, or cognitive neuroscience. Her interests outside of lab include kayaking, drawing photorealism, and attending live music shows.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcarrizales
Philip Lambeth, Ph.D.
Philip Lambeth received his BA in Cognitive Science (with a focus on neuroscience) and French at the University of Virginia in 2012, where he worked as an undergraduate researcher. He worked for the next two years as a technician in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Scott at UVA before moving to Austin to begin his graduate studies. Philip was a graduate student in the Institute for Neuroscience (INS) at UT Austin and worked with both Dr. Mangieri and Dr. Rueben Gonzales. Philip is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, with Dr. Elyssa Margolis.
Joel Shillinglaw, Ph.D.
Joel Shillinglaw received his BA in Psychology and minor in Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010. As an undergraduate, and for the following two years as a lab technician, Joel was a member of Dr. Donita Robinson’s lab investigating alcohol and behavior.
Joel received his PhD from the Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Program in the Division of Pharmacology & Toxicology. His dissertation work investigated how glutamatergic and GABAergic transmission change in response to ethanol in the Insular Cortex, an underexplored brain region of much recent addiction interest. Broadly speaking, Joel is interested in how synaptic transmission in brain circuits of motivational significance change to underlie, at least in part, various disease states.
Selected Pre-prints and Publications:
Baratta AM, Mangieri RA, Aziz HC, Lopez MF, Farris SP, Homanics GE. Effect of Chronic Intermittent Ethanol Vapor Exposure on RNA Content of Brain-Derived Extracellular Vesicles. Alcohol. 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2022.08.006.
Grigsby KB*, Mangieri RA*, Roberts AJ, Lopez MJ, Tran A, Firsick EJ…Aziz HC, et al. The FDA-approved drug apremilast suppresses alcohol intake: clinical and pre-clinical validation. bioRxiv [Pre-Print]. 2021 May 15; doi: 10.1101/2021.05.13.444033. *Equal contributors.
Nixon K, Mangieri RA. Compelled to drink: Why some cannot stop. Science. 2019 Nov 22;366(6468):947-948.
[>10 citations] Kircher DM, Aziz HC, Mangieri RA*, Morrisett RA*. Ethanol Experience Enhances Glutamatergic Ventral Hippocampal Inputs to D1 Receptor-Expressing Medium Spiny Neurons in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell. J Neurosci. 2019 Mar 27;39(13):2459-2469. Epub 2019 Jan 28. *Equal contributors.
[>10 citations] Hopf FW, Mangieri RA. Do alcohol-related AMPA-type glutamate receptor adaptations promote intake? In: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. April 2018.
[>20 citations] Mangieri RA, Maier EY, Buske TR, Lasek AW, Morrisett RA. Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase Is a Regulator of Alcohol Consumption and Excitatory Synaptic Plasticity in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell. Front Pharmacol. 2017 Aug 15;8:533.
[>10 citations] Renteria R, Jeanes ZM, Mangieri RA, Maier EY, Kircher DM, Buske TR, Morrisett RA. Using In Vitro Electrophysiology to Screen Medications: Accumbal Plasticity as an Engram of Alcohol Dependence. Int Rev Neurobiol. 2016;126:441-65.
[>10 citations] Mangieri RA, Cofresí RU, Gonzales RA. Ethanol exposure interacts with training conditions to influence behavioral adaptation to a negative instrumental contingency. Front Behav Neurosci. 2014 Jun 17;8:220.
[>40 citations] Mangieri RA, Cofresí RU, Gonzales RA. Ethanol seeking by Long Evans rats is not always a goal-directed behavior. PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e42886.
[>30 citations] Mangieri RA, Hong KI, Piomelli D, Sinha R. An endocannabinoid signal associated with desire for alcohol is suppressed in recently abstinent alcoholics. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2009 Jul;205(1):63-72.
[>160 citations] Justinova Z, Mangieri RA, Bortolato M, Chefer SI, Mukhin AG, Clapper JR, King AR, Redhi GH, Yasar S, Piomelli D, Goldberg SR. Fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibition heightens anandamide signaling without producing reinforcing effects in primates. Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Dec 1;64(11):930-7.
[>300 citations] Bortolato M*, Mangieri RA*, Fu J, Kim JH, Arguello O, Duranti A, Tontini A, Mor M, Tarzia G, Piomelli D. Antidepressant-like activity of the fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibitor URB597 in a rat model of chronic mild stress. Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Nov 15;62(10):1103-10. *Equal contributors.
[>80 citations] Mangieri RA, Piomelli D. Enhancement of endocannabinoid signaling and the pharmacotherapy of depression. Pharmacol Res. 2007 Nov;56(5):360-6.
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