Stress as an accelerating factor for brain and behavior changes in a rodent model of Alzheimer's Disease

The Chandler Lab at Rowan University investigates how stress drives long-lasting changes in brain function and behavior, focusing on the brainstem nucleus locus coeruleus and its role in modulating arousal and anxiety. Building on the understanding that, during stressful experiences, the locus coeruleus becomes engaged and releases norepinephrine broadly throughout the central nervous system, the lab studies the neuroadaptations that follow chronic or traumatic stress. These neuroadaptations can promote maladaptive behaviors and pathological anxiety that persist well after the stressor has ended. Using rats as a model species, the Chandler Lab's current work examines how exposure to an acute, ethologically relevant stressor produces long-term changes in anxiety-like behavior via cellular and circuit-level changes within the locus coeruleus. The project titled "Stress as an accelerating factor for brain and behavior changes in a rodent model of Alzheimer's Disease" situates these mechanistic investigations within a broader interest in how stress might influence neurodegenerative processes and behavioral decline. Although the lab's experimental approach centers on the locus coeruleus and stress-induced norepinephrine signaling, the work is framed to inform understanding of how stress exposure could accelerate brain and behavioral changes relevant to Alzheimer's disease models.

The Chandler Lab employs rodent behavioral assays and neurobiological techniques to identify which cellular and circuit adaptations in the locus coeruleus correlate with persistent anxiety-like behaviors following stressor exposure. By isolating specific adaptations at both cellular and circuit levels the lab aims to define mechanistic links between discrete stress experiences and enduring alterations in arousal regulation and affective state. This mechanistic clarity is intended to provide a foundation for interpreting how stress interacts with vulnerability to neurodegenerative pathology in rodent models of Alzheimer's disease. The lab's emphasis on ethologically relevant acute stressors ensures that experimental conditions reflect salient environmental challenges that animals and by extension humans encounter, increasing translational value. Dr. Chandler's scientific trajectory, from a BA in Neuroscience to a PhD in Neuroscience, underpins a research program focused on bridging molecular, circuit, and behavioral neuroscience.

The Chandler Lab's research contributes to a growing literature on the central role of the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system in stress responses and long-term behavioral outcomes. By delineating the neuroadaptations that maintain pathological anxiety-like states, and by interrogating how stress exposure may accelerate brain and behavioral changes in Alzheimer's disease models, the lab's work seeks to inform strategies for early intervention and improved understanding of stress as a modifier of neurodegenerative trajectories.