Student Directory

Hometown: Frackville, PA

Undergraduate Education:  BS/06 Biochemistry/Saint Joseph's University

Advisor:  Robert Levenson, PhD
Graduate Program:  Pharmacology

Thesis: (tba)

Research Interest:  Role of GPCR interacting proteins in drug addiction

Description: Investigation of VAP33 as a novel mu-opioid receptor interacting protein

Opioid drugs (i.e. morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone) are the most effective analgesics clinically available for treating moderate to severe pain. The chronic use of opioids, however, poses the risk of tolerance, physical dependence and addiction. The molecular changes that occur in the central nervous system in response to chronic opioid exposure remain unclear. The goal of my research is to characterize novel protein-protein interactions at the key opioid receptor that contributes to drug tolerance and addiction. I am currently analyzing the interaction between the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) and its interacting protein partner VAP33. Understanding the functional significance of the MOR/VAP33 interaction will help to elucidate the molecular basis for neuronal changes that occur in response to morphine and other opioid drugs.

Meeting Presentations

• 2003
  43rd Annual Meeting of the American Soc. for Cell Biology, San Francisco, CA
• 2010
  Society for Neuroscience:  Drug Reinforcement, Seeking and Reinstatement, San Diego, CA
  NIDA Informatics for Data and Resource Discovery in Addiction Research, NIH Neuroscience Center, Rockville, MD
• 2011
  Cellular Biology of Addiction Workshop, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, NY
  Penn State Neuroscience Institute Mini-Symposium, University Park, PA 
   

McNeil EL, Tacelosky D, Basciano P, Biallas B, Williams R, Damiani P, Deacon S, Fox C, Stewart B, Petruzzi N, Osborn C, Klinger K, Sellers JR, King Smith C, (2004)  Actin-dependent motility of melanosomes from fish retinal pigment epithelial cells investigated using in vitro motility assays  Cell Motility & the Cytoskeleton 58(2):71-82

Dluzen D, Li G, Tacelosky D, Moreau M, Liu DX (2011) Bcl-2 is a downstream target of ATF5 that mediates ATF5' pro-survival function in a cell type-dependent manner JBC 286(9):7705-13 PMCID: PMC3045024

Woll MP, De Cotiis Da, Bewley MC,Tacelosky DM, Levenson R, Flanagan JM (2011) Interaction between the D2 Dopamine Receptor and Neuronal Calcium Sensor-1 analyzed by fluorescence anisotropy Biochemistry 50(41):8780-91 PMID:21875085

Tacelosky DM, Creecy AE, Shanmugavelandy SS, Smith JP, Claxton DF, Adair JH, Kester M, Barth BM (2012) Calcium phosphosilicate nanoparticles for imaging and photodynamic therapy of cancer Discov Med 13(71):275-85

Barth BM, Shanmugavelandy SS, Tacelosky DM, Kester M, Morad SA, Cabot MC (2013) Gaucher's disease and cancer: a sphingolipid perspective Crit Rev Oncog.18(3):221-34