Professor & Chancellor's Fellow, Neurobiology and Behavior
School of Biological Sciences

Addiction, Aversion, Behavior, Brain, Extracellular Vesicles, RNA, Genetics, Nicotine, Motivation, Neuroscience, Neurobiology, Reward

Fowler Lab Website at UCI

2015 Avenir Award, NIDA
2015 Fellow, Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM)
2016 Associate Member, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP)
2016 ‘Scientist to Watch’, The Scientist magazine
2018 Invited Visiting Professor, University of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
2015-present Associate Editor, Journal of Neuroscience
2018-present Editorial Board Member, Neuropsychopharmacology

2008-2014: Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Staff Scientist, Laboratory of Dr. Paul Kenny, Molecular Therapeutics, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL
2004-2005: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Laboratory of Dr. Bruce Trapp, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH

The overall goal of my research is centered on elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying motivated behaviors that mediate drug dependence. As such, I have extensive expertise in the neurobiology of nicotine dependence, nicotine pharmacology, epigenetics/genetics, extracellular vesicle signaling, and animal models/behavior. The focus of my current work is to investigate the pathways and mechanisms regulating the reinforcing and aversive processing of nicotine that control intake of the drug. We established a reliable mouse procedure for intravenous nicotine self-administration, a technique that had been difficult to establish by many other labs. With this procedure, we found that alpha5- and alpha3-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors regulate the intake of nicotine through the habenulo-interpeduncular pathway, a finding that remarkably parallels recent human genome-wide linkage studies. We are currently utilizing innovative approaches (in vivo optogenetic and chemicogenetic neuromodulation, extracellular vesicle/exosome analysis of extracellular RNA signaling) to more clearly define the specific role of the pathways, neurotransmitters and receptors involved in controlling drug consumption. Based on the increasing incidence of e-cigarette and cannabis use among adolescents, we are investigating the impact of adolescent drug exposure (both single substance and co-exposure with cannabinoids and nicotine) on drug taking, cognitive and affective behaviors in adulthood. With this foundation, we also hope to achieve our goal of communicating important scientific findings to policy makers as a means of informing future tobacco/e-cigarette policy initiatives.

Lallai V, Grimes NP, Fowler JP, Sequeira PA, Cartagena P, Limon A, Coutts M, Monuki E, Bunney W, Demuro A, and Fowler CD. (2019) Nicotine acts on cholinergic signaling mechanisms to directly modulate choroid plexus function. eNeuro, in press.

Chen E, Lallai V, Grimes NP, Pushkin AN, Fowler JP and Fowler CD. (2018) Altered baseline and nicotine-mediated behavioral and cholinergic profiles in ChAT-Cre mouse lines. Journal of Neuroscience, 38(9):2177-2188. PMID: 29371319

Lallai V and Fowler CD (2017) More than just chillin’: Interactive effects of menthol and nicotine in drug reward. Neuropsychopharmacology, 42(12):2283-2284. PMID: 28553838

Fowler CD, Gipson CD, Kleykamp A, Rupprecht LE, Rees VW, Gould TJ, Oliver J, Bagdas D, Damaj MI, Schmidt HD, Harrell PT, Duncan A, and DeBiasi M, on behalf of the Basic Science Network of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (2017) Basic science and public policy: Informed regulation for nicotine and tobacco products. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, Epub ahead of print. PMID: 29065200

Tuesta LM, Chen Z, Duncan A, Fowler CD, Ishikawa M, Lee BR, Liu XZ, Lu Q, Cameron M, Hayes MR, Kamenecka TM, Pletcher M, and Kenny PJ (2017) GLP-1 acts on habenula avoidance circuits to control nicotine intake. Nature Neuroscience, 20(5): 708-716. PMID: 28368384

Fowler CD (2017) The habenulo-interpeduncular pathway and nicotine withdrawal. In FS Hall, JW Young & A Der-Avakin (Eds.), Negative affective states and cognitive impairments in nicotine dependence (pp. 192-204). San Diego, CA: Elsevier.

Ochoa V, Loeffler AJ, Fowler CD. (2015) Emerging role of the cerebrospinal fluid – neuronal interface in neuropathology. Neuro Open J., 2(3): 92-98.

Fowler CD, Tuesta LM and Kenny PJ (2013) Role of a5* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the effects of acute and chronic nicotine treatment on brain reward function in mice. Psychopharm., 229(3): 503-13. PMID: 23958943

Fowler CD and Kenny PJ (2013) Nicotine aversion: Neurobiological mechanisms and relevance to tobacco dependence vulnerability. Neuropharm., Epub ahead of print. PMID: 24055497

Bobadilla AC, Heinsbroek JA, Gipson CD, Griffin WC, Fowler CD, Kenny PJ, Kalivas PW (2017) Corticostriatal plasticity, neuronal ensembles and regulation of drug-seeking behavior. Progress in Brain Research, 235: 93-112. PMID: 29054293

Lotfipour S, Leach P, Byun JS, Fowler CD, Murphy NP, Kenny PJ, Gould TJ and Boulter J (2013) Targeted deletion of the mouse a2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit gene Chrna2 potentiates nicotine-modulated behaviors. J Neurosci, 33(18): 7728-41. PMID: 23637165

Fowler CD and Kenny PJ (2012) Habenular signaling in nicotine reinforcement. Neurospsychopharm., 37(1): 306-7. PMID: 22157872

Hollander JA, Pham D, Fowler CD and Kenny PJ (2012) Hypocretin-1 receptors regulate the reinforcing and reward-enhancing effects of cocaine: pharmacological and behavioral genetics evidence. Front Behav Neurosci., 6:47. PMID: 22837742

Fowler CD, Liu Q, Johnson PM, Marks MJ and Kenny PJ (2011) Habenular a5* nicotinic receptor signaling controls nicotine intake. Nature, 471(7340):597-601. PMID: 21278726

Fowler CD and Kenny PJ (2011) Intravenous nicotine self-administration and cue-induced reinstatement in mice: effects of nicotine dose, rate of drug infusion and prior instrumental training. Neuropharm., 61:687-698. PMID: 21640128

Fowler CD and Kenny PJ (2011) Utility of genetically modified mice for understanding the neurobiology of substance use disorders. Human Genetics, 131:941-57. PMID: 22190154

Tuesta LM, Fowler CD and Kenny PJ (2011) Recent advances in understanding nicotinic receptor signaling mechanisms that regulate drug self-administration behavior. Biochem. Pharmacol., 82:984-995. PMID: 21740894

Schaefer A, Im HI, Veno MT, Fowler CD, Min A, Intrator A, Kjems J, Kenny PJ, O’Carroll D and Greengard P (2010) Argonaute 2 in dopamine 2 receptor-expressing neurons regulate cocaine addiction. J. Exp. Med., 207(9): 1843-51. PMID: 20643829

Fowler CD and Kenny PJ (2008) Subtypes of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in addiction, dependence and withdrawal: Evidence from genetically modified mice. Behav. Pharmacol., 19(5-6):461-484. PMID: 18690103

Young EA, Fowler CD, Kidd G, Chang A, Rudick R, Fisher E and Trapp BD (2008) Imaging correlates of decreased axonal Na+/K+ ATPase in chronic multiple sclerosis lesions. Ann. Neurol., 63:428-435. PMID: 18438950

Fowler CD, Liu Y and Wang ZX (2007) Estrogen and adult neurogenesis in the amygdala and hypothalamus. Brain Res. Rev., 57(2):342-351. PMID: 17764748

Fowler CD, Johnson F and Wang ZX (2005) Estrogen regulation of cell proliferation and distribution of estrogen receptor-alpha in the brains of adult female prairie and meadow voles. J. Comp. Neurol., 489(2):166-179. PMID: 15984004

Fowler CD, Freeman ME, and Wang ZX (2003) Newly proliferated cells in the adult male amygdala are affected by gonadal steroid hormones, J. Neurobiol., 57(3):257-269. PMID: 14608662

Fowler CD and Wang ZX (2003) Adult neurogenesis in the mammalian brain: exogenous and endogenous influences. Acta Zoologica Sinica, 49:151-162.

Fowler CD, Liu Y, Ouimet C, and Wang ZX (2002) The effects of social environment on adult neurogenesis in the female prairie vole. J. Neurobiol., 51: 115-128. PMID: 11932953

Liu Y, Fowler CD, Young LJ, Yan Q, Insel TR and Wang ZX (2001) Expression and estrogen regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene and protein in the forebrain of female prairie voles. J. Comp. Neurol., 433:499-514. PMID: 11304714

Liu Y, Fowler CD and Wang ZX (2001) Ontogeny of brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene expression in the forebrain of prairie and montane voles. Dev. Brain Res., 127:51-61. PMID: 11287064

Liu Y, Curtis JT, Fowler CD, Spencer C, Houpt T, and Wang ZX (2001) Differential expression of vasopressin, oxytocin, and corticotrophin-releasing hormone messenger RNA in the paraventricular nucleus of the prairie vole brain following stress. J. Neuroendo., 13:1059-1065. PMID: 11722702

Society for Neuroscience

Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT)

American Society for Exosomes and Microvesicles (ASEMV)

American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP)

Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program

Neurobiology and Behavior

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6055

Last updated
08/03/2023