Postdoctoral Fellow

Job Description: I am primarily responsible for running and overseeing the operant self administration and reinstatement studies in rodents. My secondary focus is to develop new models of drinking behavior to aid us in screening for suitable compounds for continuation in preclinical development. In addition, I am responsible for supervising and training new members of the group to handle the animals, learn the paradigms we use, and teach them how to perform surgeries, when necessary.

Research Interests: The group focus is the preclinical development of targets and/or compounds which have potential to be treatments for alcoholism. My personal interests lie in determining the behavioral viability of such compounds and their efficacy to prevent relapse. I am also interested in developing new models and ways of approaching alcoholism in model systems to better understand how our potential new therapies may be of best use. Finally I have an underlying interest in how different affective and addictive disorders may impact each other during development; i.e. how schizophrenia or depression may impact the development of alcoholism or vice versa.

Publications:

Richards, J.K., Simms, J.A.and Bartlett, S.E. Conditioned cues and yohimbine induce reinstatement of beer and near beer seeking in Long-Evans rats. Addiction Biology (in press).

Steensland, P., Simms, J.A., Holgate, J., Richards, J.K., and Bartlett, S.E. (2007) Varenicline, an a4b2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist, selectively decreases ethanol consumption and seeking. PNAS published July 11, 2007, 10.1073/pnas.0705368104

Richards JK, Abdel-Razaq W, Bates TE, Kendall DA.
The effects of desmethylimipramine on cyclic AMP-stimulated gene transcription in a model cell system. Biochem Pharmacol. 2005 Sep 1;70(5):762-9.
PMID: 16036225 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Abstracts and Presentations:

Richards JK, Borgland SL, Simms J, Steensland P, Taha S, Bonci A, Bartlett SE. The Orexin-A Receptor Antagonist, SB334867 Inhibits Operant Self-Administration and Stress-Induced Relapse to Ethanol Seeking. Neurobiology of Addiction, Keystone Symposia, Santa Fe, New Mexico. February 2007

Richards JK, Simms J, Nielsen C, Ananthan S and Bartlett SE. Identification of a novel compound, SoRI 9409, that inhibits operant self administration of alcohol. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, USA October 2006

Richards JK, Simms J, Fry C and Bartlett SE. A potential high-throughput preclinical model for screening compounds selective for inhibiting ethanol-mediated behaviors. ISBRA meeting, Sydney, Australia, September 2006

Richards JK, Simms J, Fry C and Bartlett SE. A potential high-throughput preclinical model for screening compounds selective for inhibiting ethanol-mediated behaviors. Annual Meeting for the Research Society on Alcoholism, Baltimore, MD, June 2006

Richards JK, Simms J, Roldan Jr J, Fry C and Bartlett SE. A potential high-throughput preclinical model for screening compounds selective for inhibiting ethanol-mediated behaviors. 6th Annual Guze Symposium, St Loius, MO, March 2006

Richards JK, Diamond I and Janak PH. Dopamine D2 receptor stimulation reinstates ethanol seeking in rats extinguished from operant responding. Society for Neuroscience Annual meeting Nov 2005, Washington DC.

Layfield R, Richards JK, Cavey JR, Uchiumi T, Bailey K, Kendall D.A proteomic approach to investigating mechanisms of action of tricyclic antidepressants. (2003) Biochemical Society Transactions. July Meeting

Kendall DA and Richards JK. Molecular and Genetic Targets for Antidepressants. J Psychopharmacol 16 (3) Supp Sept 2002.

Richards, JK, Hill, SJ, and Kendall, DA. A model cell system for investigating drug-induced changes in gene transcription. (2001) Abstract IUPS 34th International Meeting, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Richards JK, Kendall DA and Hill SJ. Inhibition of CREB/CRE-directed gene transcription by desmethyl imipramine (DMI) in a CHO-K1 cell line. Br J Pharmacol 131: 120P 2000.

Previous Employment: University of Nottingham, School of Biomedical Sciences