Cannabis and the Sexual Brain: How Sex Affects Cannabinoid Activity
October 13, 2021
Male and female animals, including humans, exhibit different responses to cannabis and its intoxicating constituent, THC. This international symposium will present the available evidence for sexual dimorphisms in the pharmacological properties of THC.
Featured Speakers
(Click on an image to read each person’s bio)
UCI School of Biological
Sciences
Washington State
University
Institute of Neuroscience,
Monserrato, Italy
UCI School of Medicine
UCI School of Medicine
UCI School of Medicine
UCI School of Biological
Sciences
UCI School of Medicine
Institute of Neuroscience,
Monserrato, Italy
UCI Anatomy and Neurobiology
Western University of
Health Sciences
UCI School of Biological
Sciences
Larry Cahill, PhD
Presentation Title: “Sex Influences On Brain And Body: An issue Whose Time Has Come”
Dr. Larry Cahill is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. He first became interested in brain and memory as an undergraduate at Northwestern University. After working for two years at Searle Drug Company in Illinois on memory enhancing drugs, he earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California Irvine in 1990, then conducted post-doctoral research in Germany for 2 years. He returned to UC Irvine to extend his research to studies of human subjects, which in turn led to his discoveries about sex influences on emotional memory, and to his current general interest in the profoundly important topic of sex influences on brain and body function. He is an influential leader on the topic of sex influences on the brain. In 2017 he edited the first issue of any neuroscience journal devoted to the topic (in The Journal of Neuroscience Research). He is an internationally regarded investigator and speaker whose work has been highlighted often in the press, including in the New York Times, London Times, Washington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, PBS, CNN, Scientific American and 60 Minutes.
Rebecca Craft, PhD
Presentation Title: “Vive la Différence: Sex differences in Cannabinoid Analgesia”
Rebecca Craft earned a Ph.D. in Experimental and Biological Psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1991, completed post-doctoral training in pharmacology at the University of Arizona, and has been a professor of psychology at Washington State University since 1993. The primary focus of her research is characterizing sex differences in analgesic and other behavioral effects of opioids and cannabinoids.
Liana Fattore, PhD
Presentation Title: “Sex-dependent differences in cannabinoid dependence”
Liana Fattore is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council of Italy, where she is leading the CNR laboratory of Behavioral Neuropharmacology. Her research activity aims to understand how drugs of abuse, including the most recent synthetic cannabinoids and other novel psychoactive substances (NPS), may differently impact on brain functioning and behavior in males and females.
Christine Gall, PhD
Presentation Title: “Sex, estrogen, and enduring effects of adolescent THC”
Christine Gall is Professor and Chair in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research is focused on mechanisms of functional plasticity in the adult central nervous system and, in particular, the roles of endogenous neurotrophic factors and integrin adhesion proteins in synaptic plasticity.
Ulrike Luderer, PhD
Presentation Title: “Cannabis effects on the Ovary: Peripheral actions that have to be sexually dimorphic”
Dr. Luderer is a physician-scientist whose research focuses on the mechanisms by which environmental and occupational exposures disrupt reproductive function and development of the reproductive system. Dr. Luderer is Professor of Medicine, Developmental and Cell Biology, and Public Health and is director of the UCI Graduate Program in Environmental Health Sciences. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and OEM, has a PhD in reproductive biology, and did postdoctoral training in reproductive toxicology.
Gary Lynch, PhD
Presentation Title: “Adolescent Cannabis Causes Lasting, Sexually Differentiated Defects in Plasticity and Learning.”
Gary Lynch is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine. One of the most cited authors in neuroscience, he holds 25 patents and co-founded two publicly traded companies.
Stephen Mahler, PhD
Presentation Title: “Sex Differences in Acute and Persistent Behavioral Effects of Adolescent THC in Rats”
Steve Mahler is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine. He examines the neural circuits underlying motivated behavior and addiction. Projects in his lab explore the neurodevelopmental consequences of adolescent THC exposure or of early-life adversity on the brain and behavior, and the subcortical circuits underlying relapse-like pursuit of opioid, cannabinoid, and psychostimulant drugs.
Daniele Piomelli, PhD
Moderator
Daniele Piomelli is Distinguished Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology and Louise Turner Arnold Chair in Neurosciences at the University of California, Irvine. He is director of UCI’s Center for the Study of Cannabis and Editor-in-Chief of Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, the only peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of cannabis, its derivatives, and their endogenous counterparts in the human body.
Patrizia Porcu, PhD
Presentation Title: “Behavioral characterization of co-exposure to cannabinoids and hormonal contraceptives in female rats”
Patrizia Porcu has a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cagliari, Italy, and is currently a Research Scientist at the Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council of Italy. Her research is focused on elucidating the role of neuroactive steroids in physiological and pathological conditions with particular regard to neuropsychiatric diseases such as drug addiction and emotional disorders.
Alexa Torrens
Presentation Title: “Sex-dependent differences in the pharmacokinetics of THC.”
Alexa Torrens is a predoctoral trainee at the University of California, Irvine. Her studies on the comparative pharmacokinetics of THC in adolescent and adult mice earned her the title of Highlighted Trainee Author in the July 2020 issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
Ed Wagner, PhD
Presentation Title: “Sex Differences in, and Dietary Influences on, the Cannabinoid Regulation of Energy Homeostasis”
Dr. Wagner received a dual Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology and Neuroscience from Michigan State University in 1994. He did his post-doctoral training with Dr. Martin Kelly at Oregon Health and Science University, which he joined as a faculty in 1998. He is now Professor in the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Western University of Health Sciences. His research centers on the synaptic and hormonal determinants underlying the control of energy balance. He is funded by the National Institutes of Health to study sex differences in, as well as hormonal and dietary influences on, cannabinoid CB1, nociceptin opioid (NOP) receptor- and pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activated polypeptide (PAC1) receptor-mediated regulation of homeostatic and hedonic energy balance circuits.
Marcelo Wood, PhD
ICAL Introduction
Marcelo Wood is Professor and Chair in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. His research is focused on understanding the epigenetic mechanisms that regulate gene expression required for long-lasting changes in behavior as related to drug-seeking and drug-associated memory processes.