Lisa Gerak

Assistant Professor/Research

Ph.D., Pharmacology

Louisiana State University Medical Center

New Orleans, Louisiana

Office: 210-567-0106

Email: gerak@uthscsa.edu

 

Research Interests

• benzodiazepine	• neuroactive steroid
• dependence	• tolerance

 

Research Activities

Studies conducted in this laboratory examine the acute and chronic behavioral effects of benzodiazepines and other positive GABAA modulators, particularly neuroactive steroids. Benzodiazepine tolerance and dependence differentially alters the effects of positive GABAA modulators, depending on their site of action.

Our primary research goal is to investigate changes in GABAA receptor function with benzodiazepine tolerance and dependence, discover the nature of differences between the effects of neuroactive steroids and those of benzodiazepines, and determine whether these differences can be exploited for clinical benefit.

 

Appointments, Boards, Committees and Memberships 

• 2013-2015 – Secretary/Treasurer of the Behavioral Pharmacology Division of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET)
• 06/98-Present – College on Problems of Drug Dependence
• 11/93-Present – Society for Stimulus Properties of Drugs
• 2005-Present – American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) Member

   

Selected Publications

• Gerak, LR. and France, CP. (2014) Discriminative stimulus effects of pregnanolone in rhesus monkeys. Psychopharmacology 231:181-190, PMC3882199
• Zanettini, C., France, CP., Gerak, LR. (2014) Quantitative pharmacological analyses of the interaction between flumazenil and midazolam in monkeys discriminating midazolam: Determination of the functional half life of flumazenil. Eur J Pharmacol 723:405-409, PMC in progress
• Zanettini, C., Yoon, SS., France, CP., Gerak, LR. (2013) Acute tolerance to chlordiazepoxide qualitatively changes the interaction between flumazenil and pregnanolone and not the interaction between flumazenil and midazolam in rhesus monkeys discriminating midazolam. Eur J Pharmacol 700:159-164, PMC3578055
• Gerak, LR. and France, CP. (2012) Quantitative analyses of antagonism: combinations of midazolam and either flunitrazepam or pregnanolone in rhesus monkeys discriminating midazolam. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 340:742-749
• Eppolito, AK., Bai, X. and Gerak, LR. (2012) Discriminative stimulus effects of pregnanolone in rats: role of training dose in determining mechanism of action. Psychopharmacology 223:139-47 PMC3490492