Mark Brodie

Mark Brodie (Photo: Jenny Fontaine/University of Illinois Chicago)

Mark Brodie is a professor of physiology and biophysics and psychiatry and a researcher in the UIC Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics. His studies focus on the interplay between alcohol and the brain and how chronic alcohol exposure changes the physiology of neurons in the brain. He is particularly interested in the mechanisms by which alcohol drives the production and release of dopamine from the ventral tegmental area.

His recent research has shown that certain epigenetic changes can influence the release of dopamine from neurons in the ventral tegmental area in response to alcohol. He has found that mice and rats that were given drugs that block some epigenetic changes had more normalized responses to chronic alcohol exposure, indicating that the drugs, called histone deacetylase inhibitors, currently used to treat certain cancers, may hold promise in the treatment of alcohol abuse.