Area of research
Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience · Cognitive Neuroscience
Research interest
Dr. Kumaresan’s overall research objective is to study neuronal activity-dependent plasticity and its relevance for brain disorders. The current focus of Dr. Kumaresan’s research is to understand the neurobiological bases of addiction to psychostimulants. Recidivism to drug abuse is a major hurdle in the successful treatment of addiction. Illicit drug use usurps neural circuits involved in survival enhancing behaviors. The goal is to elucidate the cellular and molecular underpinnings of drug-induced enduring neural plasticity in these circuits using a combination of behavioral, cellular and molecular approaches. In particular, Dr. Kumaresan employs a novel approach of using cell-permeable peptides that disrupt protein-protein interactions in vivo in order to study ongoing behavior. These a