Immunohistochemistry and Microscopy

Dr. Hoffman graduated from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and received her Ph.D at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. She was a faculty member at the University of Rochester, University of Pittsburgh, and is currently a professor at Morgan State University, Maryland, Baltimore.

She is a member of the Editorial Boards of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, Endocrinology, Experimental Neurology and Biology of Reproduction.

She has perfected and devised methods for double and triple labelling with immunocytochemical techniques and devised a quantitative non-radioactive <em>in situ</em> hybridization procedure that enables determination of the level of mRNA expression in inidivual cells without compromising the ability to maintain cell morphology and antigenicty of various proteins. With these approaches, her laboratory addressed neuronal phenotype changes in the prolactin regulatory neurons during lactation – and the degree to which such changes enable continued prolactin secretion even in the absence of suckling. A separate, although related direction in her laboratory focuses on the injured brain. These studies examine the role that ovarian hormones play in seizure-induced brain damage, mechanisms of secondary damage following head trauma, and glial changes after seizures and during the development of Huntington’s disease. Evolution of these injury projects is expanding to address the question of how brain circuits change to shift glucose metablism and food intake after chronic sleep deprivation and neuronal/endocrine dysfunction in the premutation of the Fragile X gene.