Tod Kippin

Biography

Tod Kippin earned a BSc and a MA in Biopsychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He completed his PhD in Psychology (2000) at the Centre for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada where he received the Stanley G. French Convocation Award. Dr. Kippin conducted post-doctoral research in the Department of Medical Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and in the Department of Physiology and Neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Research

One of the most remarkable characteristics of the mammalian nervous system is its tremendous plasticity allowing seemingly limitless adaptability to environmental circumstances which enables not only adaptive responses but also pathological behavioral outcomes. My research interests lie in understanding the parameters that govern the action of cellular components of the nervous system that produce coordinated behavioral, endocrine, and cognitive processes. The focus of my current research is understanding why some individuals can take drugs but not succumb to addiction while others develop compulsive pathological behaviors that disrupt all aspects of their lives. Although the factors mediating vulnerability and resilience to drug addiction is currently limited, emerging studies demonstrate that genetics, endocrine, and environmental factors contribute to initial drug response as well as changes due to cumulative drug exposure at the behavioral, neurochemical and molecular levels. To investigate these phenomena, my laboratory employs a variety of behavioral assays, genetic and transgenic models, tissue culture, pcr (polymerase chain reaction) for DNA and RNA analyses, immunocytochemistry and Western blotting for protein analyses, as well as microdialysis with HPLC and developing novel biosensors for analyses of neurochemistry.