Elizabeth Quinlan

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Professor


Contact
Email: equinlan@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.7396
Lab: 301.405.7222
Office Address: 1110 Bioscience Research Building

Graduate Program Affiliations
  • Neuroscience & Cognitive Science (NACS)
  • BISI - BISI-Physiological Systems (PSYS)
  • BISI - BISI-Molecular & Cellular Biology (MOCB)


Research Interests
The goal of my research is to understand how experience differentially influences the juvenile versus adult mammalian brain.  A primary focus is the role of experience in the regulation of the visual system.  Pioneering work in the mammalian visual system demonstrated a significant decline in experience-dependent synaptic plasticity over the course of postnatal development. One of the severe consequences of the loss of experience-dependent synaptic plasticity is the inability to recover from form-deprivation amblyopia (Amblyopia ex anopsia) caused a unilateral congenital cataract.  If untreated, neurons in the binocular cortex become dominated by the unaffected eye, and resistant to recovery by removal of the cataract.  Recently we have developed a method (binocular visual deprivation through dark exposure) that allows for the recovery from severe amblyopia in rodents, even when a monocular occlusion is initiated immediately at eye opening and continues until adulthood.  This work was recognized with the  Advancement of Science Award by the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association.  Currently, we use a multidisciplinary analysis that includes electrophysiology, opto- and chemogenetics, morphomtery and visual psychophysics, to characterize the functional consequences, and the molecular mechanisms, by which dark exposure promotes the recovery from chronic deprivation amblyopia.

Representative Publications
  • Bridi MCD, de Pasquale R, Lantz CL, Gu Y, Borrell A, Choi SY, He K, Tran T, Hong SZ, Dykman A, Lee HK, Quinlan EM, Kirkwood A. (2018). Two distinct mechanisms from experience-dependent homeostasis.  Nat Neurosci. May 14. doi: 10.1038/s41593-018-0150-0. pdf
  • Murase S, Lantz CL, Quinlan EM. (2017) Light reintroduction after dark exposure reactivates plasticity in adults via perisynaptic activation of MMP-9. Elife. 2017 Sep 6;6. pii: e27345. doi: 10.7554/eLife.27345. pdf
  • Gu Y, Tran T, Murase S, Borrell A, Kirkwood A, Quinlan EM. (2016) Neuregulin-Dependent Regulation of Fast-Spiking Interneuron Excitability Controls the Timing of the Critical Period. J Neurosci. 2016 Oct 5;36(40):10285-10295. pdf
  • Eaton NC, Sheehan HM, Quinlan EM. (2016) Optimization of visual training for full recovery from severe amblyopia in adults. Learn Mem. 2016 Jan 19;23(2):99-103. doi: 10.1101/lm.040295.115. pdf
  •  Murase S, Lantz CL, Kim E, Gupta N, Higgins R, Stopfer M, Hoffman DA, Quinlan EM. (2016) Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Regulates Neuronal Circuit Development and Excitability. Mol Neurobiol. 2016 Jul;53(5):3477-3493. doi: 10.1007/s12035-015-9295-y. Epub 2015 Jun 21. pdf
  •  Gu Y, Huang S, Chang MC, Worley P, Kirkwood A, Quinlan EM. (2013) Obligatory role for the immediate early gene NARP in critical period plasticity. Neuron. 2013 Jul 24;79(2):335-46. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.05.016. pdf
  •  Montey KL, Eaton NC, Quinlan EM. (2013) Repetitive visual stimulation enhances recovery from severe amblyopia. Learn Mem. 2013 May 16;20(6):311-7. doi: 10.1101/lm.030361.113. pdf
  • Montey, K.L. and Quinlan, E.M. (2011) Recovery from chronic monocular deprivation following reactivation of thalamocortical plasticity by dark exposure.  Nat. Commun. 2:317 doi: 10.1038/ ncomms1312. pdf

Education
  • Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, 1993
  • Post-doc, University of Virginia, 1993-1996
  • Post-doc, Brown University, 1996-2000
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