I began doing research in elementary school by sharpening popsicle sticks to dissect worms and the organs that came from chickens my mother prepared for dinner. Fortunately, when I got to high school I had the opportunity to develop my own research project, using real tools, and I began a lifetime of interest in how events early in life can influence, brain, physiology and behavior throughout life. In that very first experiment I examined the effect of a “healthy” diet and an “unhealthy” diet during prenatal and early postnatal life on growth and behavior of rats.

After college I spent 3 years working in the testing laboratory of a pharmaceutical company, and soon realized that the most interesting work was designing experiments and analyzing results. I would need to return to school if I wanted to participate more in that work. My graduate research returned to the question of rat development, specifically what benefit rat pups gain from consuming the feces of their mothers after they begin to eat solid food. (Answer: Mom’s feces contains lots of bile acids that pups do not yet produce. Bile acids help digest dietary fat and is necessary for formation of normal myelin and maturation of CNS. Lack of normal fat deposition results in slowed behavioral development). By the time I completed my PhD I had become particularly interested in the role of the environment on development and particularly on reproduction.

I spent over 10 years examining the effects of seasonal photoperiod (and temperature) on meadow vole development, maternal and paternal behavior, and a variety of related questions. I also spent about the same length of time exploring the role of seasonal cues on control of annual cycles of hibernation, reproduction, fat deposition and circadian behavior in golden-mantled ground squirrels. Along the way I learned to collect ground squirrels in the field, collected and studied annual rhythms of flying squirrels and European hamsters. I suppose I developed a side “hobby” of figuring out how to get wild rodents to live happily in a lab environment. Happily means they were able to breed well and live long healthy lives.

This skill has been tested maximally with the research that began in 1991 examining the environmental control, development and interaction with reproduction of circadian rhythms in the S. American degu. We have dramatically improved the husbandry, surgical procedures, breeding practices and developed appropriate drug usage in that time, as well as generating a large body of data on circadian control mechanisms. You can read more about this ongoing research in other sections of the website.

Finally, as a fun sabbatical project, I began collaborating with colleagues in the medical school by developing a behavioral ethogram of sheep that were exposed to prenatal androgens. This little project has grown into a massive study of the life history of animals that were exposed prenatally to one of three gonadal steroid during a period of development critical for the shift from female physiology/behavior to male. Sheep are raised in a complex social environment with many social relationships. We are studying how adult behavior emerges as an interaction of the prenatal biological manipulation and the postnatal social interactions.

I graduated from Ashland University with a BS in Biology. I became interested in research while an undergraduate and decided to attend graduate school right after college. I received my Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan in 2005. For my dissertation I investigated sex differences in morphine antinociception under the mentorship of Dr. John Traynor. After graduating, I did a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Jill Becker at UM, studying the rapid effects of estradiol in the rat. Now I am the Lee Lab Executive Manager/Assistant Research Scientist/Lecturer and oversee projects in both our rodent and sheep research. I really enjoy working with undergraduates in the lab and teaching them about my favorite subject - Hormones and Beahvior. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my husband and son and going out with friends. I like playing softball, volleyball, knitting, reading and playing ‘nerd games’ like Settlers of Catan.

I am a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where I earned a BS in Brain, Behavioral, and Cognitive Science with a minor in Music.  As a lab manager, I aid in organizing, collecting and analyzing data as well as procedure design.  In Fall 2012, I plan to head off to a yet-to-be-determined graduate program to pursue a PhD in biopsychology.  Outside of lab, you may find me at the CCRB, singing, writing, or walking my lovable little dog, Byron.

BIO

Giovanna Paolone
Post-doctoral fellow
Curriculum vitae

BIO