SCoBIRC FACULTY

Kimberly Nixon, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor,
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Dr. Nixon received her Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Texas at Austin followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC, she was the first to discover the effect of alcohol on adult neurogenesis.

Research Interests

The Nixon lab is interested in the role of neural stem cells in alcoholic neuropathology. The seminal discovery of neural stem cells that produce new born neurons in the adult brain (a.k.a. adult neurogenesis) has changed the way we think about CNS pathologies and associated dysfunctions. Understanding the factors that regulate adult neurogenesis and their contribution to brain and behavioral processes provides a new framework for understanding neurodegenerative and regenerative effects that occurs during active alcohol dependence and abstinence respectively. The Nixon Lab uses cutting edge neuroanatomical and behavioral techniques are used to identify the mechanism by which alcohol not only inhibits neural stem cell proliferation and adult neurogenesis but also how it promotes neurogenesis in recovery and abstinence from alcoholism.

Currently funded projects are investigating whether alcohol targets progenitor cells during alcohol intoxication and conversely the mechanism by which alcohol induces the recruitment of progenitors following alcohol-induced brain damage. A major goal of the lab is to identify and understand the various signaling pathways involved in the recruitment of progenitors following binge-induced brain damage and how that endogenous pathway may be harnessed for pharmacological treatment of alcohol-induced neurodegeneration. New projects are extending these findings into models of adolescent drinking and investigating novel neuroprotectants.

Select Publications

Nixon, K. (2006). Alcohol and adult neurogenesis: Roles in neurodegeneration and recovery from chronic alcoholism. Invited review, Hippocampus, 16, 287-95.

Crews, F.T., Mdzinarishvili, A., Kim, D.H., He, J., & Nixon, K. (2006). Alcohol inhibits neurogenesis in the adolescent rat. Neuroscience, 137, 437-445.

Tabakoff, B., Hoffman, P.L., Snell, L.D., Nixon, K., Crews, F.T., Tateno, M., Ukai, W., Guerri, C., Rubert, G., Minana, R., & Saito, T. (2005). The effects of ethanol on neuronal and glial differentiation and development. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29, 2070-2075.

Nixon, K. & Crews, F.T. (2004). Temporally specific burst in cell proliferation increases hippocampal neurogenesis in protracted abstinence from alcohol. The Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 9714-9722.

Crews, F.T. & Nixon, K. (2003). Alcohol, neural stem cells and adult neurogenesis. Alcohol Research & Health, 27, 197-203.

Nixon, K. & Crews, F.T. (2002). Binge alcohol exposure decreases neurogenesis in adult rat hippocampus. Journal of Neurochemistry, 83, 1087-1093.

Nixon, K. Hughes, P., Amsel, A., & Leslie, S.W. (2002). NMDA receptor subunit expression following early postnatal exposure to ethanol. Developmental Brain Research, 139, 295-299.

Highfield, D.H., Nixon, K. & Amsel, A. (1996). The NMDA antagonist MK-801 affects non-spatial learning in preweanling rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 110, 300-304.