Alexis Ceasrine Email & Phone Number

Durham, Nc, Us

Durham, Nc, Us

Durham, Nc

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

My postdoctoral work with Dr. Staci Bilbo focused on understanding developmental sex differences, and how the maternal environment differentially influences male and female brain development. I found that maternal high-fat diet results in endotoxin accumulation in fetal tissues, leading to male-specific microglial over-phagocytosis of serotonergic neurons, persistent decreased serotonin bioavailability, and decreased reward-seeking behavior. Importantly, many of our mechanistic findings in mice translate to humans – we observed that serotonin levels in human male, but not female, fetal brain tissue decrease in response to increasing maternal dietary fat intake.Select publications: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-022-00693-8https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666166722005494

Baltimore, Maryland Area

During my graduate training at The Johns Hopkins University, I used a comprehensive set of cell biology tools, including mouse genetics, advanced imaging techniques, and metabolic profiling to show that adrenergic signaling in β-cells of the pancreas is critical for female-specific glucose homeostasis via developmental repression of vascular growth. I also identified a previously undocumented yet critical side-effect of tamoxifen administration (often used to temporally control gene expression) in improving glucose homeostasis in commonly used inbred mouse strains. This work resulted in 2 first-authored primary research articles:https://elifesciences.org/articles/39689https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/160/4/782/5315419?login=true

Overseeing a staff of 11 Resident Assistants at Hofstra University and maintaining a respectful environment for 30+ resident students.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology And Biophysics

Bachelor Of Science, Biology

Forensic Chemistry