University of Iowa · Biomedical EngineeringBlackwell Lab
Kim L Blackwell · Iowa City, Iowa
Research Focus
Dr. Kim L Blackwell's lab at the University of Iowa focuses on understanding how female sex hormones, specifically estradiol, affect brain function related to addiction and learning. The research explores how estradiol impacts synaptic connections in the brain's reward centers and how this might differ between males and females, particularly concerning cocaine use. The lab's work aims to unravel the complex interactions between hormones and drug behaviors, and ultimately improve treatment strategies for substance use disorders in women.
estradiolsynaptic plasticitycocaine addictionsex differencesdorsal striatumtransgenic micegene expressionelectrophysiologyreward learningRNA sequencing
Research Aims
3AIM 01Investigate how estradiol affects long-term potentiation in specific types of brain neurons.
AIM 02Identify signaling pathways altered by estradiol and cocaine through advanced sequencing techniques.
AIM 03Develop models to test interactions between signaling pathways that lead to synaptic plasticity deficits.
Skills the Lab Values
electrophysiologyRNA sequencingmouse modelscell culturemolecular biology techniquescomputational modelingimmunohistochemistrytransgenic animal handlingdata analysisspatial transcriptomics
Output against the department
Publications192bottom 45% of dept.330th of 595
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations9.5ktop 36% of dept.217th of 595
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.