THE LAHOSTE LABORATORY

Unlike other subfields of psychology, Biopsychology is defined not by its subject matter but by its methods.  In our laboratory we try to understand mental and neurological disorders from the molecular level to the behavioral and every level in between, an oftentimes arduous strategy.

We independently co-discovered a gene that regulates the sensitivity of dopamine receptors, a function that is dysregulated in schizophrenia.  This gene has recently been shown to contribute to brain cell death in Huntington’s disease, a finding that we are hotly pursuing.

We discovered the association between a particular dopamine gene and ADHD.

We clone genes, we breed genetically engineered mice, we do DNA “fingerprinting,” we study changes in gene expression, we use state-of-the art microscopy to visualize the protein products of genes and, most of all, we meticulously observe and test rats and mice in their normal and drug-stimulated behavior using paradigms that have been validated as models of human mental and neurological illness.

But we are not molecular biologists, nor are we neuroscientists, we are Biopsychologists, first and last.

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Updated 6/18/2012