Elizabeth Quinlan
Professor
Contact
Email: equinlan@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.7396
Lab: 301.405.7222
Fax: 301.314.1304
Office Address: 1110 Bioscience Research Building
Graduate Program Affiliations
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 2010 Advancement of Science Award by the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association. Currently, we are using a multidisciplinary analysis that includes electrophysiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and behavior to characterize the functional consequences, and the molecular mechanisms, by which dark exposure promotes the recovery from chronic deprivation amblyopia.
Recent Publications
Education
Contact
Email: equinlan@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.7396
Lab: 301.405.7222
Fax: 301.314.1304
Office Address: 1110 Bioscience Research Building
Graduate Program Affiliations
- Neuroscience & Cognitive Science (NACS)
- BISI - BISI-Physiological Systems (PSYS)
- BISI - BISI-Molecular & Cellular Biology (MOCB)
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 2010 Advancement of Science Award by the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association. Currently, we are using a multidisciplinary analysis that includes electrophysiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and behavior to characterize the functional consequences, and the molecular mechanisms, by which dark exposure promotes the recovery from chronic deprivation amblyopia.
Recent Publications
- Gu., Y., Huang, S., Chang, M.C., Worley, P., Kirkwood, A. and Quinlan E.M. (2013) Obligatory role for the immediate early gene NARP in critical period plasticity (Neuron, in press).
- Montey, K. Eaton, N. and Quinlan E.M. (2013) Repetitive visual stimulation enhances recovery from severe amblyopia. (Learning and Memory, in press).
- 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
- Huang, S., Yu, G., Quinlan, E.M. and Kirkwood, A. (2010) A refractory period for rejuvenating GABAergic synaptic transmission and ocular dominance plasticity with visual deprivation. J Neurosci 30:16636-16642. pdf
- Belforte JE, Zsiros V, Sklar ER, Jiang Z, Yu G, Li Y, Quinlan EM, Nakazawa K. (2010) Postnatal NMDA receptor ablation in corticolimbic interneurons confers schizophrenia-like phenotypes. Nature Neurosci. 13:76-83. Epub 2009 Nov 15. pdf
Education
- Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, 1993
- Post-doc, University of Virginia, 1993-1996
- Post-doc, Brown University, 1996-2000
