Tertia D Purves-Tyson The International Congress of Neuroendocrinology 2014

Tertia D Purves-Tyson

My research currently focuses on the modulation of dopamine in the midbrain and cortical and subcortical targets by androgens and estrogens during adolescence and adulthood and the mechanisms of action of sex steroid-based adjunctive therapies for schizophrenia. I am particularly interested in male adolescence as males have a higher prevalence of schizophrenia than females and adolescence is the age of highest onset. I am currently investigating the molecular basis of raloxifene modulation of dopamine pathways using a rodent model of sex steroid modulation. I am also utilizing a postmortem human schizophrenia and control midbrain cohort to determine how sex steroid related signaling molecules are changed in a snapshot in time in the disorder. Other work involves the modulation of gene expression of neurotrophins and their receptors in response to changing sex steroids. I completed my PhD (Manchester University, UK) implicating the mitogen-activated protein kinases in the etiology of diabetic sensory neuropathy. I took up a postdoctoral position at NeuRA (then POWMRI) in 2002 investigating sex steroid signaling mechanisms in pelvic autonomic and sensory neurons. I was awarded a NH&MRC Biomedical Training Fellowship and a Ramaciotti Establishment gift in 2004 to examine the effects of estrogen on signaling mechanisms on the pelvic autonomic nervous system underlying erectile and bladder dysfunction in diabetes. I am now a member of the Schizophrenia Research Laboratory at NeuRA.