Laverne Melon

I earned my BA in Neuroscience (with a minor in Women and Gender study) as a Posse scholar at Middlebury College where I began my quest to understand how alcohol hijacks neurobiological processes to cause maladaptive behaviors and alcohol use disorders. I continued on to earn my PhD in Addiction Neuroscience from Purdue University, under Dr. Stephen Boehm, as a NIAAA-T32 funded predoctoral fellow in IUPUI’s Genetic Aspects of Alcoholism training program. In the Boehm lab, I studied δ-GABAA  receptors' role in mediating binge drinking and sex differences in the development of negative affect and anxiety during withdrawal. I joined the Maguire Lab as an NIGMS-IRACDA funded postdoctoral fellow and with Dr. Maguire’s expertise and guidance, I have been able to use sophisticated techniques, including in vivo electrophysiology, conditional genetic manipulation, and chemogenetic neuronal activation to investigate δ-mediated GABAergic inhibition as a mechanism of communication between the stress, reproductive and reward axes. Outside of the lab, I like listening to loud music, cooking spicy food and doing whatever I can to broaden participation and increase inclusion in science.