*** Dr. Booze is accepting students for Fall 2022 ***

Research

Dr. Booze, together with her co-investigators, students and post-doctoral fellows, has published much of the original work in the field of dopaminergic/parkinsonian-type deficits in HIV-1 and drugs of abuse. Her ongoing research involves discovering the neurochemical and neuroanatomical basis of dementia and other neurocognitive disorders. Novel compounds from medicinal plants are being studied as promoting neural growth and cognitive performance, leading to exciting new therapeutic approaches to brain dysfunction.

Dr. Booze’s research group is very active with several graduate students, undergraduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty collaborators present at regular laboratory meetings. Students are expected to present their discoveries at major meetings (Society for Neuroscience) on a regular basis. Her previous students and fellows are now employed in the pharmaceutical industry, at major research universities, and in distinguished clinical/academic positions. She is a co-investigator on the Biomedical-Behavioral Training Grant, funded by the NIH, which is designed for supporting students interested in the neurological basis of behavior. 

Dr. Booze is currently Professor and Bicentennial Endowed Chair in Behavioral Neuroscience in the USC Department of Psychology – Behavioral Neuroscience. Dr. Booze received her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University in Neurobiology, completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University in Neuropharmacology and became an Assistant Professor Physiology and Pharmacology at Wake Forest University. She moved to the University of Kentucky in 1991, where she rose through the ranks to Full Professor. Dr. Booze was recruited from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, in July 2002 to the University of South Carolina. Dr. Booze currently is PI on funded NIH R01 grant (DA013137, renewed through 2016) and held a research career award through 2007 from NIH for her work on neurodevelopmental sex differences and drug abuse. Dr. Booze serves as a member of the NIH Study Section. She has been Associate Editor of the journals Developmental Psychobiology, Neurotoxicology and Teratology and the Journal of Neurological Sciences. She is currently an Associate editor of the journal International Journal of Developmental Neurobiology.  Dr. Booze is also an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Representative Publications: * student co-authors in bold *

Roscoe, R.F., Mactutus, C.F., Booze, R.M. (2014) HIV-1 transgenic female rat: Synaptodendritic alterations of Medium Spiny Neurons in the Nucleus Accumbens. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol., epub ahead of print.

Moran, L.M., Booze, R.M., Mactutus, C.F. (2014) Modeling deficits in Attention, Inhibition and Flexibility in HAND. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol. 9(4):508-521.

Bertrand, SJ., Mactutus, C., Aksenova M., Epsensen-Sturges, T., Booze R. (2014). Synaptodendtritic recovery following HIV-1 Tat exposure: Neurorestoration by phytoestrogens. J Neurochem, 128(1):140-151. Link

Bertrand, SJ, Aksenova MV, Mactutus CF., Booze RM. (2013). HIV-1 Tat protein variants: Critical role for the cysteine region in synaptodendritic injury. Exp Neurol, 248:228-235. Link

Moran, LM., Booze RM, Mactutus CF. (2013). Time and time again: Temporal processing demands implicate perceptual and gating deficits in the HIV-1 transgenic rats. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol, 8(4):988-997. Link

Landhing M. Moran, Rosemarie M. Booze, Charles F. Mactutus. (2013). Animal Models: Behavior and Pathology: Preclinical Assessment of the Putative Cognitive Deficits in HAND. In H. Xiong and H.E. Gendelman (Eds.), Current Laboratory Methods in Neuroscience Research. Springer, New York.

Midde NM, Hauang X, Gomex AM, Booze RM, Zhan CG, Zhu, J. (2013). Mutation of tyrosine 470 of human dopamine transporter is critical for HIV-1 Tat -induced inhibition of dopamine transport and transporter conformational transitions. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol, 239:139-147. Link

Moran LM, Booze RM, Webb, KM, Mactutus CF. (2013). Neurobehavioral alteratons in HIV-1 transgenic rats: evidence for dopaminergic dysfunction. Exp Neurol, 239:139-147. Link

Moran LM, Aksenov MY, Booze RM, Webb KM, Mactutus CF. (2012). Adolescent HIV-1 transgenic rats:evidence for dopaminergic alterations in behavior and neurochemistry revealed by methamphetamine challenge. Curr HIV Res, 10(5):415-424. Link

Adams SM, Aksenova MV, Aksenov MY, Mactutus CF., Booze RM. (2012). Soy isoflavones genistein and daidzein exert anti-apoptotic actions via a selective ER-mediated mechanism in neurons following HIV-1 Tat (1-86) exposure. PLoS One, 7(5):e37540. Link

Aksenov MY, Aksenova MV, Mactutus CF, Booze RM. (2012). D1/NMDA receptors and concurrent methamphetamine+HIV-1 Tat neurotoxicity. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol, 7:599-608. Link

Gomez AM, Midde NM, Mactutus CF, Booze RM, Zhu, J. (2012). Environmental enrichment alters nicotine-mediated locomotor sensitization and phosphorylation of DARPP-32 and CREB in rat prefrontal cortex. PLoS One, 7(8):e44149. Link

Patel DA, Booze RM, Mactutus CF. (2012). Prenatal cocaine exposure alters progenitor cell markders in the subventricular zone of the adult rat brain. Int J Dev Neurosci, 30(1):1-9. Link