Marcelo Wood, PhD

The research in my lab is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying learning and memory processes as well as drug-seeking behavior.  I am particularly interested in examining the role of chromatin modifying enzymes in regulating transcription required for long-lasting types of memory and drug-seeking behavior.  My lab uses a combined molecular, genetic, pharmacological and behavioral approach to examine the role of histone acetyltransferase (HAT) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) enzymes in memory and drug-seeking behavior. Histone acetylation is one major epigenetic mechanism of gene regulation.  We are also examining the role of a neuron-specific nucleosome remodeling complex (nBAF) in regulating gene expression required for memory processes that has been implicated in human intellectual disability disorders.  Nucleosome remodeling represents another major epigenetic mechanism. The overall hypothesis driving our research is that epigenetic mechanisms modulate neuronal function in dynamic yet potentially very stable ways that underlie long-term changes in behavior related to memory processes and drug-seeking behavior. 

I have a strong background in molecular biology from my graduate work in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University where I performed research in the area of cancer molecular biology.  This work involved studying HAT function, nucleosome remodeling, and transcriptional regulation, which I then applied to the neurobiology of learning and memory as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Ted Abel’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania.  At Penn, I gained a strong background in behavioral neuroscience.  Since starting my lab in 2006 at the University of California Irvine, I have been continuously funded by NIH, as well as additional private foundation grants and sponsored research grants with industry partners.