"The Role of Genetic Sex in Affect Regulation and Expression of Mood-Related Genes across Species"
Marianne L. Seney, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Dr. Seney earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the College of the Holy Cross in 2001. She then worked as a research associate at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Colorado State University studying the development of sex differences in the brain. Knowing that she wanted to gain further expertise in this research field, she decided to attend graduate school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as it boasts a remarkable concentration of neuroendocrinologists that make up the Center for Neuroendocrine Studies. Dr. Seney performed her graduate training in the lab of Dr. Nancy Forger, a leader in the field of anatomical sex differences in the nervous system, where she studied the development of sex differences in various species and in various regions of the nervous system. Her graduate work was funding by a pre-doctoral Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award. Upon completion of her graduate training in 2009, Dr. Seney joined the lab of Dr. Etienne Sibille in the Psychiatry Department and the Translational Neuroscience Program at the University of Pittsburgh to gain postdoctoral training in translational approaches to studying depression (i.e., human postmortem brain studies and relevant mouse models), with a focus on female vulnerability to mood disorders. Her graduate training was supported by a post-doctoral Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award. In the Fall of 2014, Dr. Seney was promoted to Assistant Professor in the Psychiatry Department. Her research is currently funded by a K01 Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. Research in the Seney lab combines skills in neuroendocrinology and sexual differentiation with expertise in human postmortem brain analyses and translational studies to investigate mechanisms underlying sex differences in depression. 

Learning Objectives:

Describe the biological mechanisms underlying sex differences in the brain and behavior and how we can use mouse models to examine these mechanisms.
Identify the brain regions that make up the corticolimbic network of mood regulation.
Understand the benefits and challenges of using mouse models relevant to psychiatric disorders. 

"Circadian Rhythms and Addiction: Clocks and Immune Mechanisms in the Brain Regulate ‘Reward’ and Motivation"
Ryan Logan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

For more information regarding this lecture, please contact Frances Patrick (email: patrickfm@upmc.edu; Telephone: 412-246-6787).