Welcome to Cheryl Conrad’s research webpage.  Scientific advances in this lab are accomplished through the hard work and dedication of many individuals: graduate students, technicians, undergraduate research volunteers, honor’s students, and collaborations with other faculty and scientists.

        The purpose of our research is to understand the consequences of chronic stress on the brain and behavior.  Chronic stress has far reaching effects, from exacerbating conditions that include AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, obesity, and autoimmune disorders, to triggering drug relapse.  The studies performed in our lab specifically investigate the morphological and functional changes in the hippocampus following chronic stress.  In rodents, chronic stress makes the hippocampus vulnerable to brain injury and cognitive dysfunction.  A highly consistent change in the hippocampus following chronic stress is the selective pruning of dendrites, a specialized region of neurons that facilitates communication among neurons.  Thus, our studies investigate the mechanism(s) that underlie changes in hippocampal dendritic morphology following chronic stress to facilitate treatment strategies for cognitive improvement.