Kristin Hamre
University of Tennessee Health Science Center, TN·Neuroscience
Heavy drinking in adulthood has been linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Newer evidence suggests that alcohol exposure before birth may also raise that risk, but the data are not yet conclusive.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Biology
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
alcohol
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Test whether ethanol exposure in the first 10 postnatal days, when the mouse hippocampus is most sensitive, leads to earlier Alzheimer's-like behavior in 5xFAD mice, using tasks such as the Morris water maze.
- Determine whether developmental and adult ethanol exposure act together to worsen Alzheimer's-like outcomes, comparing 5xFAD and wild-type mice given ethanol early, in adulthood, or both, against saline and unexposed controls.
- Measure the levels and patterns of amyloid beta, a protein fragment that marks Alzheimer's-type pathology, in the same mice to see whether alcohol exposure timing changes brain pathology.
- Examine whether the effects of developmental and adult ethanol exposure on behavior and amyloid beta differ between male and female mice.
More about the research
The question matters because people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are now reaching middle age, and they are more likely to develop alcohol use disorders as adults. This means many may be exposed to alcohol at more than one stage of life.
Why it matters
Alzheimer's disease is devastating for patients and families, and alcohol exposure is one of the few risk factors people can change. If early alcohol exposure raises dementia risk, especially combined with adult drinking, the findings could help clinicians counsel people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders about their risk. The results could also point to a new Alzheimer's risk factor worth studying further.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Erin Milligan
University of New Mexico, NM·Neuroscience
Test whether circular RNAs (circRNAs), non-coding RNAs that regulate genes, disrupted by prenatal alcohol exposure are necessary and sufficient for working-memory deficits triggered by minor stressors in adolescent mice.
Robert Marr
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, IL·Neuroscience
Test how pharmacologically altering the activity of neprilysin and NEP2, enzymes that degrade amyloid-beta, changes acute pathology and recovery in the days after traumatic brain injury in APP-humanized mice.
Kevin Williams
North Carolina Central University, NC·Biology
Test how candidate genes, identified as altered in ethanol-exposed mouse limb buds by RNA sequencing, rescue or worsen alcohol-induced fin and limb defects, using gene knockouts in cells, zebrafish and mice.
The school
University of Tennessee Health Science Center: 4 labs on PI Pages, $125M a year on research, 197 research doctorates a year.
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