The NeuroDrosophiLab of Nigel Atkinson

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 Section of Neurobiology 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 Section of Neurobiology...

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

Most recent:

Robinson, B.G. and N.S. Atkinson. 2013. Is Alcoholism Learned? Insights from the Fruit Fly. Current Opinion in Neurobiology pii: S0959-4388(13)00032-9. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2013.01.016. [Epub ahead of print]

Ghezzi, A., H.R. Krishnan and N.S. Atkinson. 2012. Susceptibility to ethanol withdrawal seizures is produced by BK channel gene expression. Addiction Biology doi: 10.1111/j.1369-1600.2012.00465.x. [Epub ahead of print]

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.

Robinson, B.G., S. Khurana, J.B. Pohl, W.K. Li, A. Ghezzi, A.M. Cady, K. Najjar, M.M. Hatch, R.R. Shah, A. Bhat, O. Hariri, K.B. Haroun, M.C. Young, K. Fife, J. Hooten, T. Tran, D. Goan, F. Desai, F. Husain, R.M. Godinez, J.C. Sun, J. Corpuz, J. Moran, A.C. Zhong, W.Y. Chen and N.S. Atkinson. 2012. A low concentration of ethanol impairs learning but not motor and sensory behavior in Drosophila larvae. PLoS One 7: e37394.

Krishnan HR, Al-Hasan YM, Pohl JB, Ghezzi A, Atkinson NS (2012) A role for dynamin in triggering ethanol tolerance. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 36: 24-34.

& Computer programs

Graduate school

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

©2010. Nigel S. Atkinson. All Rights Reserved