Skip to content

Other ways to search: Events Calendar | UTHSC News

Hao Chen, PhD

Hao Chen

Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacology, Addiction Science, and Toxicology
209 Translational Science Research Building
71 S. Manassas St
Memphis, TN 38103
Email: hchen@uthsc.edu
Phone: 901.448.3720
Github
Lab website
ORCID: 0000-0002-2680-6921

Education

  • 1993, Bachelor of Medicine, Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Basic Science of Chinese Medicine
  • 1996, MS, Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Neuroanatomy
  • 2001, PhD, Michigan State University, Anatomy

Research Interest

Genetic variants influcing operant drug intake in rats. We are conducting three genetic mapping studies: 1) using a population of outbred heterogenous stock rat to study socially acquired intravenous nicotine self-administration; 2) using the hybrid rat diversity panel to study nicotine intravenous self-administration with an oral menthol cue, and 3) using a reduced complexity cross between two closely related strains (WMI and WLI) to study oral oxycodone self-administration.

Novel rat models of drug abuse. My lab established several rat models of drug abuse: 1) socially acquired intravenous nicotine self-administration; 2) menthol as a conditioned flavor cue for intravenous nicotine self-administration; 3) operant oral alcohol self-administration; 4) operant oral oxycodone self-administration.

Integrating computation into rodent behavioral experiments. We are developing methods that use a convolutional neural network to analyze the social behavior of freely moving rats (yorodents), a device for automatically record the tail withdrawal latency (tailTimer), a device that supports concurrent operant oral drug self-administration by two rats, and a device for choosing between social and drug rewards.

Rat genomics and transcriptomics. We use state-of-the-art genome sequencing methods to analyze the genetic variations between inbred strains of rats. We are interested in finding not only single nucleotide variations but also large structural variants. We are also studying brain transcriptomes, using rats naive from treatments or after drug exposure.

Literature mining. We are developing tools for mining the PubMed literature database for gene-gene interactions (chilibot) or the roles genes play in addiction (rats.pub)

Publications

Google Scholar Profile

May 26, 2022