Dr. Peter W. Kalivas
Peter W. Kalivas, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of Neurosciences,
The Neuroscience Institute, Medical University of South Carolina.
He joined NARSAD’s Scientific Council in 2003. NARSAD is the
world’s leading charity dedicated to mental health research.
Peter’s research interests are:
Neurobiology of drug addiction including neuroadaptions in molecular,
neuronal and behavioral systems. Neural circuitry mediating the
translation of motivation into adaptive behaviors.
Peter is studying how the brain adapts to repeated exposure by drugs of
abuse, with a focus on psychostimulants such as cocaine and amphetamine.
These adaptations manifest themselves as classic symptoms of addiction,
including drug craving and paranoia.
He studies these adaptations first by defining the normal state of the
brain circuitry involved using neurochemical, anatomical, and behavioral
techniques. This has led to the characterization of a circuit, termed
the motive circuit, that is intimately involved in
translating motivational stimuli into normal adaptive behavioral
responses. He then superimposes on this circuit repeated exposure to
psychostimulants and examines changes in the function of the motive
circuit using molecular, neurochemical, and behavioral techniques.
This strategy has uncovered many novel neuroadaptions. Notably, the
recruitment of glutamate transmission from the cortex in addiction
behavior and alterations of gene expression, including novel genes such
as NAC-1. The role of changes in gene expression in addiction is
validated by microinjecting either antisense oligonucleotide or viral
vectors into selected brain nuclei to under or over express,
respectively, the gene of interest. Animals with altered expression are
then examined in various behavioral models of addiction such as drug
self-administration and reinstatement, and locomotor sensitization.
Peter coedited
The Basal Forebrain: Anatomy to Function,
The Neurobiology of Drug and Alcohol Addiction (Annals of the New
York
Academy of Sciences),
Limbic Motor Circuits and Neuropsychiatry, and
The Mesocorticolimbic Dopamine System,
and coauthored
Dopamine transmission in the initiation and expression of drug- and
stress-induced sensitization of motor activity,
A circuitry model of the expression of behavioral sensitization to
amphetamine-like psychostimulants – I. Forebrain GABAergic
innervation, and
Alterations in dopaminergic and glutamatergic transmission in the
induction and expression of behavioral sensitization: a critical review
of preclinical studies.
He earned his BS in Biology from Western Washington University in
1974 and his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Washington,
Seattle in 1980.
He holds patent
Combination of a glycine transporter (GLYT1) inhibitor and an
antipsychotic for the treatment of symptoms of schizophrenia as well as
its preparation and use thereof.