The NeuroDrosophiLab of Nigel Atkinson

 
 

About me

My B.S. is in Microbiology from Texas A&M. For my Ph.D. I studied yeast RNA processing at Hershey Medical Center of the Penn State University. I post-doc’d at The University of Wisconsin-Madison where I studied Drosophila neurogenetics and cloned the first example of a BK type Ca2+-activated K+ channel gene. Read more...

About the lab

We study the molecular mechanism underlying drug tolerance in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster.

We are housed in the Department of Neuroscience and belong to the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research. My laboratory is  located on the second floor of the Patterson building. Read more about the Waggoner Center... Read more about Deparment of Neuroscience...

Computer programs

Press

DugDug article about our work.

Graduate school

I draw graduate students from the Molecular Biology program and from the Neuroscience Program. More about these programs.

Contact information

Office 512-232-3404
Lab Phone: 512-471-1629
Fax: 512-471-9651

U.S. Mail

Nigel Atkinson
The University of Texas at Austin
Neurobiology, Section of
1 University Station C0920
Austin, Texas 78712-0248

Fedex/Airborne

2400 Speedway PAT 140
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1064


Current Funding is from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Lab membersMembers_of_the_lab.html

Selected recent papers

Ghezzi A, Zomeno M, Pietrzykowski AZ, Atkinson NS.(2016) Immediate-early alcohol-responsive miRNA expression in Drosophila. J Neurogenet. Nov 15:1-10. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 27845601

Atkinson NS.(2016) How the Ganetzky lab drove me to alcohol. J Neurogenet. Sep 1:1-4. [Epub ahead of print]  PMID: 27584572

Troutwine BR, Ghezzi A, Pietrzykowski AZ, Atkinson NS. (2016) Alcohol resistance in Drosophila is modulated by the Toll innate immune pathway. Genes Brain Behav. 2016 Apr;15(4):382-94. PMID: 26916032

Krishnan HR, Li X, Ghezzi A, Atkinson NS. (2016) A DNA element in the slo gene modulates ethanol tolerance. Alcohol. 2016 Mar;51:37-42. PMID: 26992698

Li X, Ghezzi A, Krishnan HR, Pohl JB, Bohm AY, Atkinson NS. (2015) A histone modification identifies a DNA element controlling slo BK channel gene expression in muscle.  J Neurogenet. 29:124-34 PMID: 25967280

Ghezzi, A, Krishnan, HR, Lew, L, Pardo, FJr, Ong, DS, and Atkinson, NS (2013). Alcohol-induced Histone Acetylation Reveals a Gene Network Involved in Alcohol Tolerance. PLoS Genetics 9:e1003986. PMID: 24348266

Li, X, Ghezzi, A, Pohl, JB, Bohm, AY, Krishnan, HR, Atkinson, NS (2013) A DNA element regulates drug tolerance and withdrawal. PLoS One, 8:e75549

Pohl, JB, Ghezzi, A, Lew, L, Robles, RB, Cormack, L, and Atkinson, NS (2013). Circadian genes differentially affect tolerance to ethanol in Drosophila. Alcohol Clin Exp Res doi: 10.1111/acer.12173.


Ghezzi, A., Y.M. Al-Hasan, H.R. Krishnan, Y. Wang and N.S. Atkinson. 2013. Functional mapping of the neuronal substrates for drug tolerance in Drosophila. Behav Genet 43: 227-240.


Robinson, B.G., S. Khurana, A. Kuperman and N.S. Atkinson. 2012. Neural Adaptation Leads to Cognitive Ethanol Dependence. Current Biology 22: 2338-2341.


Pohl, J.B., B.A. Baldwin, B.L. Dinh, P. Rahman, D. Smerek, F.J.r. Prado, N. Sherazee and N.S. Atkinson. 2012. Ethanol Preference in Drosophila melanogaster is Driven by Its Caloric Value. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 36: 1903-1912.

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