Alan L. Pehrson Email & Phone Number

Ruther Glen, Va, Us

New York, Ny, Us

Montclair, Nj

Waltham, Ma

Paramus, Nj

While at Lundbeck I was responsible in part for the preclinical development and differentiation of the multimodal antidepressant vortioxetine (Trintellix). Towards this end I independently identified and managed collaborations with academic researchers and contract research organizations, participated in the organization of a psychopharmacology advisory board including a variety of academic thought leaders relevant to Major Depressive Disorder, supported all non-clinical vortioxetine experiments with target occupancy data, and modeled the effects of vortioxetine on neuronal behavior. I played an integral role in driving the understanding of vortioxetine's mechanism of action, both at the receptor and circuit levels. I developed a theoretical model predicting that vortioxetine would indirectly enhance glutamate neurotransmission in a regionally selective manner, which has been empirically confirmed. On a more technical level, I played a key role in designing and implementing a preclinical program demonstrating cognition-enhancing effects of vortioxetine in animal models of depression and other diseases. Additionally, I developed target occupancy assays for the 5-HT1A, 5-HT1B, 5-HT3, and 5-HT7 receptors, and created receptor maps for each of vortioxetine's targets in the rodent CNS. While at this position I also supervised five students through their master's thesis projects, which were conducted at Lundbeck.

Paramus, Nj

Worked with Dr. Connie Sanchez on the the team that conducted preclinical development activities for the novel multimodal antidepressant, vortioxetine. See description above for a summary of my work at Lundbeck.

Pittsburgh, Pa

Worked with Dr. Bita Moghaddam. Major projects included 1) assessing the effects of the mGlu 2/3 agonist LY354740 on activated dopamine release in the rat dorsal and ventral striatum, and 2) investigating the consequences of short-term inhibition of the GABA sythesizing enzyme glutamic acid decarboxylase on cognition in the rat

Richmond, Va

Worked with Dr. Joseph H. Porter. Research focused primarily on modeling the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia, with a secondary focus on investigating the stimulus properties of atypical antipsychotics. While working at this position I also acted as Laboratory Manager from 2005 through 2007. I designed and oversaw all experiments in this laboratory that were not being directly supervised by other graduate students (often as many as five projects in addition to my thesis projects). Addtionally, I handled scheduling of all interns working at the lab as well as logistics for laboratory supplies. I also set up, maintained and programmed much of the behavioral equipment at the lab. Finally, while I was a graduate student at this laboratory, I was a recipient of a competitive predoctoral Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Taught a section of PSY 210 - Statistics Applied to Psychology. The goals of this course were to help students: 1) understand the appropriate situation to use each inferential statistical test 2) know how to interpret the results of each statistical test and place those results in context 3) become competent in using SPSS to run descriptive and inferential statistics

Taught a section of PSY210 - Statistics Applied to Psychology. See description above.

Taught 2 sections of Physiological Psychology as a dual enrollment course in partnership between Virginia Commonwealth University and the Maggie Walker Governor's school. This course sought to help students understand how the brain works in general but also how it controls behavior (both voluntary and involuntary).

Worked with Dr. Joseph H. Porter. Gained experience with behavioral pharmacology related to antipsychotic medications.

Ph.D., Experimental Psychology

M.S., Experimental Psychology

B.S., Psychology

Education record