Biography
Lena Varlinskaya is a behavioral psychopharmacologist interested in developmental aspects of alcohol research. Her studies are focused on the ontogeny of responsiveness to acute and chronic alcohol, including consequences of prenatal and adolescent alcohol exposures. This research involves animal models of social interactions, assessment of adolescent-typical behavioral, neural and hormonal changes, stress-induced behavioral alterations, and the psychopharmacology of social and non-social anxiety.
Her projects are focused on the mechanisms that modulate social consequences of alcohol in adolescent and adult animals under normal circumstances, following stress and ethanol exposure, as well as during different developmental periods. Her recent research is focused on the oxytocin and vasopressin neuropeptide systems and their roles in social deficits associated with adolescent alcohol exposure.
Education
- PhD, Institute for Experimental Medical Research, St. Petersburg, Russia
- MD, First Pavlov State Medical University, St. Petersburg, Russia
Research Interests
- Alcohol
- Social Interactions
- Stress
- Anxiety