Research Interests
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by a massive degeneration of dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). The progressive degeneration of nigrostriatal terminals leads to a depletion of dopamine (DA) in the striatum altering basal ganglia functioning and is responsible for most of the PD motor symptoms such as akinesia, rigidity, and tremor. A complete DA denervation, as observed in advanced PD, induces a loss of synaptic plasticity at corticostriatal synapses, a decrease in the number of dendritic spines of striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs), and a decrease in the number of excitatory axospinous synapses in the striatum. The focus of research in the Rademacher lab is to test the hypothesis that Parkinson’s disease symptoms are due to maladaptive structural plastic changes in the midbrain and the striatum. It is assumed that normalizing the synaptic connectivity of midbrain and/or striatal circuitry is critical for normalizing behavior. The Rademacher lab will utilize a progressive rodent model of PD (Golberg et al., 2011; Goldberg and Meshul, 2011) to test the effectiveness of novel therapeutic strategies that have the potential to be neuroprotective, prevent aberrant structural plastic changes from occurring, and/or restore a normal pattern of synaptic connectivity in brain circuitry.
Honors
2008, Travel Award, Winter Conference on Brain Research
2005, Poster Presentation Award (Postdoctoral Category), American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Great Lakes Chapter
2005, Scientific Achievement Award (Postdoctoral, Poster Presentation), International Cannabinoid Research Society
2005, Travel Award, International Cannabinoid Research Society
2004, Travel Award, Behavioral Toxicological Society
2004, Travel Award, International Cannabinoid Research Society
2003, Travel Award, International Cannabinoid Research Society
2002, Travel Award, International Cannabinoid Research Society
2001, American Psychological Association Student Travel Award, American Psychological Association Science Directorate
2001, American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award, American Psychological Association Science Directorate
2000, Graduate School Travel Award, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2000, Scholars for the Future Travel Award, National Institute on Drug Abuse
2000, American Psychological Association Student Travel Award, American Psychological Association Science Directorate
2000, Funded Externship, Center for Instructional and Professional Development, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2000, Graduate Research Scholarship in Psychology, American Psychological Foundation and the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology
1999, Anthony Fazio Research Prize, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee1997, Grants-in-Aid of Research Award, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
1997, Membership in the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
1994-1992, Presidential Fellowship Scholarship, Hamline University
Selected Publications
Steece-Collier K, Rademacher DJ, Soderstrom K. Anatomy of graft-induced dyskinesias:
circuit remodeling in the parkinsonian striatum. Basal Ganglia.
Hetzel A, Meredith GE, Rademacher DJ, Rosenkranz JA. Effect of amphetamine place
conditioning on excitatory synaptic events in the basolateral amygdala ex vivo.
Neuroscience.
Meredith GE, Rademacher DJ. MPTP mouse models of Parkinson’s disease. Journal of
Parkinson’s Disease, 1 (1): 19-33, June 2011.
Rademacher DJ, Rosenkranz JA, Morshedi MM, Sullivan EM, Meredith GE.
Amphetamine-associated contextual learning is accompanied by structural and functional
plasticity in the basolateral amygdala. Journal of Neuroscience, 30 (13): 4676-4686, Mar
2010.
Rademacher DJ, Sullivan EM, Figge DA. The effects of infusions of CART 55-102 into the
basolateral amygdala on amphetamine-induced conditioned place preference in rats.
Psychopharmacology, 208 (3): 499-509, Feb 2010.
Morshedi MM, Rademacher DJ, Meredith GE. Increased synapses in the medial
prefrontal cortex are associated with repeated amphetamine administration. Synapse,
63(2): 126-135, Feb 2009
Rademacher DJ, Meier SE, Shi L, Ho W-SV, Jarrahian A, Hillard CJ. Effects of acute and repeated restraint stress on endocannabinoid content in the amygdala, ventral striatum, and medial prefrontal cortex in mice. Neuropharmacology (Special Issue: Cannabinoid Signaling in the Nervous System), 54(1): 108-116, Jan 2008
Rademacher DJ, Napier TC, Meredith GE. Context modulates the expression of amphetamine motor sensitization, cellular activation, and synaptophysin immunoreactivity. European Journal of Neuroscience. 26(9): 2661-2668, Nov 2007
Rademacher DJ, Hillard CJ. Interactions between endocannabinoids and stress-induced
decreased sensitivity to natural reward. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry. 31 (3): 633-641, Apr 2007
Rademacher DJ, Kovacs B, Shen F, Napier TC, Meredith GE. The neural substrates of amphetamine conditioned place preference: implications for the formation of conditioned stimulus-reward associations. European Journal of Neuroscience. 24(7): 2089-2097, Oct 2006
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