About the Rodent Behavioral Core


The Emory University Rodent Behavioral Core is supported by the Emory University School of Medicine and is one of the Emory Integrated Core Facilities (EICF). We plan, execute, and analyze behavioral experiments examining activity, arousal, coordinated movement, learning and memory, anxiety, depression, seizure susceptibility, reward/reinforcement, and aggression in mice and rats.

Core Structure:

See Core Operations and Facility Advisory Committee organization charts.

Core Leadership

David Weinshenker, PhD

Scientific Director
Department of Human Genetics Professor Weinshenker Lab

dweinsh@emory.edu

David Weinshenker received a B.S. In Psychobiology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his Ph.D. in Genetics with Dr. James H. Thomas at the University of Washington in 1997, where he studied voltage-gated potassium channel mutations in C. elegans. He did a postdoc in the laboratory of Dr. Richard D. Palmiter at the University of Washington, where he received training in transgenic and knockout mouse technology, molecular biology, and catecholamine neurobiology and neurochemistry. He joined  the Department of Human Genetics at Emory in 2002 and is currently a Professor. The focus of his research program is to study the role of the catecholamine neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine in behavior and neurochemistry using genetically engineered mice and rats with altered catecholamine systems. He studies models of several different diseases, including drug addiction, affective disorders, and neurodegenerative disease. He is the Scientific Director of the Emory School of Medicine Rodent Behavioral Core facility, a Department of Human Genetics Professor, and leader of Weinshenker Lab.

School of Medicine Profile


Jason Schroeder, PhD

Technical Director

jpschro@emory.edu

Jason Schroeder has a B. S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and a PH.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Yale University. His dissertation research under the guidance of Dr. Mark Packard examined the acquisition and extinction of Conditioned Place Preference behavior. In addition to this research, Dr. Schroeder studied learning and memory processes in multiple rodent models including the Morris Water Maze, the eight-arm radial maze, active and passive avoidance to name but a few. His post-doctoral research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and then Emory University under the guidance of Dr. David Weinshenker, focused on addictive behavior and utilized multiple measures of addiction like behavior in rodents. Dr. Schroeder has been at Emory University since 2006 and has been the Technical Director of the Emory School of Medicine Rodent Behavioral Core facility since its 2009 inception.