School of Graduate Studies

MD-PhD Program

2021%209:38:23%20AM

 

Name: Muhammad Farooq

Year in Program: 5th (3rd year graduate student)

Hometown: New Orleans (From year 17 to present), Lahore, Pakistan (From year 0 to 17)

Education: B.S Biology and Chemistry, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA

Past Research:

1). Zhengchang Liu Lab, Biology Department, University of New Orleans. Project: Elucidating mechanisms of mitochondrial DNA loss in Sacchromyces Cerevisiae expressing aco1Δ mutation.

2).Scott Edwards Lab, Department of Physiology, LSU Health New Orleans. Project: Studied neurobiological changes in rodent models of stress, alcohol, and nicotine dependence.

Current Research:

S. June Liu Lab, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, LSU Health New Orleans. Project: Exploring changes in endocannabinoid signaling following fear conditioning (a PTSD model) and chronic intermittent alcohol exposure (an alcohol dependence model) to understand mechanisms underlying alcohol use disorder comorbid with anxiety disorders.

Publication:

  1. Bender CL, Sun X, Farooq M, Yang Q, Davison C, Maroteaux M, Huang YS, Ishikawa Y, Liu SJ. Emotional Stress Induces Structural Plasticity in Bergmann Glial Cells via an AC5-CPEB3-GluA1 Pathway. J Neurosci. 2020 Apr 22;40(17):3374-3384. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0013-19.2020. Epub 2020 Mar 30. PMID: 32229518; PMCID: PMC7178911.
  2. Pahng AR, Paulsen RI, McGinn MA, Farooq MA, Edwards KN, Edwards S. Dysregulation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase phosphorylation in alcohol dependence. Alcohol. 2019 Mar;75:11-18. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2018.04.006. Epub 2018 Apr 19. PMID: 30321699; PMCID: PMC6195479.
  3. McGinn MA, Paulsen RI, Itoga CA, Farooq MA, Reppel JE, Edwards KN, Whitaker AM, Gilpin NW, Edwards S. Withdrawal from Chronic Nicotine Exposure Produces Region-Specific Tolerance to Alcohol-Stimulated GluA1 Phosphorylation. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2016 Dec;40(12):2537-2547. doi: 10.1111/acer.13258. Epub 2016 Oct 31. PMID: 27796078; PMCID: PMC5506685.
  4. Whitaker AM, Farooq MA, Edwards S, Gilpin NW. Post-traumatic stress avoidance is attenuated by corticosterone and associated with brain levels of steroid receptor co-activator-1 in rats. Stress. 2016;19(1):69-77. doi: 10.3109/10253890.2015.1094689. Epub 2015 Oct 20. PMID: 26482332; PMCID: PMC4938251.
  5. Farooq MA, Pracheil TM, Dong Z, Xiao F, Liu Z. Mitochondrial DNA instability in cells lacking aconitase correlates with iron citrate toxicity. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2013;2013:493536. doi: 10.1155/2013/493536. Epub 2013 Aug 26. PMID: 24066190; PMCID: PMC3770056.


Current Research Interest: Neurobiology of addictive and affective disorders.

Current Medical Interest: Neurology, Psychiatry, and Internal medicine.

Career Goal: Do science for the sake of science. Clinical practice to improve individual health. Develop science and health policy to improve community and global health.

What makes you unique? I am an extreme extrovert, and I enjoy meeting new people.

What makes you common? I like to travel.