About Heath

Heath is a 1999 honors graduate of the George Washington University with a degree in Biology. He received his Ph.D. in pharmacology and biomedical neurosciences from the Boston University School of Medicine in 2006. Heath continued his training as a post-doctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry at Yale University. While under the mentorship of Dr. Ron Duman at Yale, Heath investigated the role of peripheral growth factors in adult neurogenesis and antidepressant-like behavioral responses in animal models of depression and anxiety.

Heath is currently a Research Associate in the Pierce Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. His current research focus is on optogenetic regulation of reward circuitry and behavior, investigating the molecular substrates that regulate cocaine-induced neuroadaptations in neural networks during cocaine seeking, and elucidating the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms underlying incubation of cocaine craving. He specializes in projects that incorporate both behavioral and molecular techniques to understand the complex processes underlying drug-seeking behavior.

Heath has continued to teach at all levels throughout his career. While at Boston University, Heath lectured to undergraduate, graduate and professional students in the Pharmacology Department as well as at Boston University’s Metropolitan College. While at Yale, Heath was an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department where he taught an undergraduate course focused on neuropsychopharmacology. At PENN, Heath lectures to graduate students in a number of courses including Neuropsychopharmacology, Behavioral Neuroscience, and the core neuroscience courses.

After living in Washington D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, Boston’s Back Bay, and New Haven’s Worcestor Square, Heath has returned to his roots in Pennsylvania. Outside of lab, Heath enjoys swimming, snowboarding, biking, and cooking. Heath is currently training to lead a group of bicyclists through the French Alps including the famed Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux in the summer of 2010.

Some of Heath’s Publications

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) antagonists attenuate cocaine priming- and cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking
Kumaresan V, Yuan M, Yee J, Famous KR, Anderson SM, Schmidt HD, Pierce RC. Behavioural Brain Research, September 2009. 202: 238-244.

Phosphorylation-dependent trafficking of GluR2-containing AMPA receptors in the nucleus accumbens plays a critical role in the reinstatement of cocaine seeking
Famous KR, Kumaresan V, Sadri-Vakili G, Schmidt HD, Mierke DF, Cha JH, Pierce RC. Journal of Neuroscience, October 2008. 28:11061-11070.

Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens shell attenuates cocaine priming-induced reinstatement of drug seeking in rats
Vassoler FM, Schmidt HD, Gerard ME, Famous KR, Ciraulo DA, Kornetsky C, Knapp CM, Pierce RC. Journal of Neuroscience, August 2008. 28:8735-8739.

CaMKII: a biochemical bridge linking accumbens dopamine and glutamate systems in cocaine seeking
Anderson SM, Famous KR, Sadri-Vakili G, Kumaresan V, Schmidt HD, Bass CE, Terwilliger EF, Cha JH, Pierce RC. Nature Neuroscience, March 2008. 11(3):344-353.

When administered into the nucleus accumbens core or shell, the NMDA receptor antagonist AP-5 reinstates cocaine-seeking behavior in the rat
Famous KR, Schmidt HD, Pierce RC. Neuroscience Letters, June 2007. 420(2):169-173.

Systemic administration of a dopamine, but not a serotonin or norepinephrine, transporter inhibitor reinstates cocaine seeking in the rat.
Schmidt HD, Pierce RC. Behav Brain Res, November 2006. 175(1):189-94.

Cooperative activation of D1-like and D2-like dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens shell is required for the reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behavior in the rat.
Schmidt HD, Pierce RC. Neuroscience, October 2006. 142(2):451-61.

Transcription Factor IIA tau is associated with undifferentiated cells and its gene expression is repressed in primary neurons at the chromatin level in vivo.
Howe ML, Mehmud ZF, Saha S, Buratovich M, Stutius EA, Schmidt HD, Lenon AL, Reddicks C, Ivanov GS, Przyborski SA, Ozer JS . Stem Cells Dev., April 2006. 15(2):175-90.

Stimulation of D1-like or D2 dopamine receptors in the shell, but not the core, of the nucleus accumbens reinstates cocaine-seeking behaviour in the rat.
Schmidt HD, Anderson SM, Pierce RC. Eur J Neurosci, January 2006. 23(1):219-28.

Anatomy and pharmacology of cocaine priming-induced reinstatement of drug seeking.
Schmidt HD, Anderson SM, Famous KR, Kumaresan V, Pierce RC. Eur J Pharmacol, December 2005. 526(1-3):65-76.

Administration of the D2 Dopamine Receptor Antagonist Sulpiride into the Shell, but not the Core, of the Nucleus Accumbens Attenuates Cocaine Priming-Induced Reinstatement of Drug Seeking
Anderson SM, Schmidt HD, Pierce RC. Neuropsychopharmacology, October 2005. 10(1):1-10.

Suppressing calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II activity in the ventral tegmental area enhances the acute behavioural response to cocaine but attenuates the initiation of cocaine-induced behavioural sensitization in rats
Licata SC, Schmidt HD, Pierce RC. European Journal of Neuroscience, January 2004. 19(2):405-14.