Unraveling the Neurobiological Consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury
by Patricia E. Molina, MD, PhD
July 14, 2021 at 11:00 am ET

Dr. Molina completed her MD training at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala, Central America, and her Ph.D. in Physiology at LSUHSC in New Orleans. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University she progressed through the academic ranks initially as an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Physiology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and subsequently as Director of Surgical Research at North Shore University Hospital. During that period, she held a Guest Scientist appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory prior to joining the Department of Physiology at LSUHSC as an Associate Professor in 1998. In 2008, she was appointed Department Head for Physiology and Director for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center of Excellence (ADACE). Dr. Molina’s research has been funded continuously since completing her Ph.D. degree. Throughout her career, her research has focused on the biomedical consequences of alcohol use utilizing an integrative approach to elucidate inter-organ mechanisms of tissue injury. Current research in her laboratory focuses on the impact of unhealthy alcohol use on risk of behavioral and metabolic comorbidities associated with HIV/AIDS. This research spans pre-clinical to clinical models and is conducted in a team science approach to bidirectionally translate findings from animal models to the clinical setting. In addition, research in her laboratory investigates the neurobiological consequences of traumatic brain injury. Dr. Molina is Principal Investigator and Director of the NIAAA-funded Comprehensive Alcohol Research Center on HIV/AIDS (CARC), the NIAAA-funded T32 and T-35 Biomedical Research Training Programs, and MPI of the NIMH funded Enhancing Neuroscience Diversity through Undergraduate Research Education Experiences (ENDURE), all at LSUHSC, New Orleans. Dr. Molina served as President of the American Physiological Society (APS), and the Association of Chairs of Department of Physiology (ACDP). Currently, she serves as President for the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) and Chair for the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse.