PETRULIS - DE VRIES LAB
LATEST LAB NEWS
08/13/2025
Nick Schappaugh was awarded a Brains and Behavior Fellowship. Congrats!!
07/28/2025
Jay Abraham joins lab as a Master's student, continuing their excellent work as an undergraduate.
07/17/2025
New paper published: Friesen, CNÅ, Hartswick D*, Selke, A*, de Vries GJ, Petrulis A. (2025) Sex difference in the effects of ventral pallidum vasopressin 1a receptor partial knockdown on social behavior in mice, Hormones and Behavior, 174, 105792, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2025.105792. (PMID: 40716389)
07/13-16/2025
Lab members (Caitlin Friesen, Delenn Hartswick, Nick Schappaugh, Aras Petrulis) attended/presented at the 29th annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology.
06/24/2025
Dr. Aras Petrulis give a talk ("Vasopressin in the lateral septum drives sex-specific social interest") at the 25th International Symposium on Regulatory Peptides, Washington, D.C.
05/15/2025
Summer high-school student volunteer Claire Zhou wins the USA Brain Bee Competition. Outstanding!
05/01/2025
Our resident undergrad superstar, Sara Guedez Suarez, graduated and is off to Emory University for a Neuroscience PhD. We wish her well!
11/29/2024
Dr. Aras Petrulis was honored to give a talk ("Vasopressin, lateral septum, and social interest") at the International Symposium on the Social Brain: Tribute to Dr. Larry J. Young, Tsukuba, Japan.
11/29/2024
Dr. Aras Petrulis gave a plenary presentation ("Neuropeptide control of social behavior: a vasopressin story") at the Lithuanian Neuroscience Association annual meeting, Vilnius, Lithuania.
10/2/2024
Dr. Aras Petrulis gave a talk ("Regulation of male social interest by vasopressin system circuitry") at the Social Brain Workshop, Baeza, Spain.
09/19/2024
Sara Guedez Suarez was awarded a Nu Rho Psi travel grant to attend/present at the 2024 Society for Neuroscience conference in Chicago
09/04/2024
NIMH R01 grant (MH135553; “Sexually Dimorphic Vasopressin Circuits in the Control of Social Interest”) funded from 9/2024 through 6/2029!
08/08/2024
Delenn Hartswick was awarded a Brains and Behavior Fellowship. Congrats!!
06/23-26/2024
Poster presentations by Nicholas Schappaugh, Delenn Hartswick, Arkar Zaw
Society at the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology annual meeting in Columbus, OH
06/15/2024
Oral presentation (“Regulation of male social interest by vasopressin system circuitry”) by Dr. Aras Petrulis at the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society annual meeting, Panama City, Panama
05/19/2024
Oral presentation (“Sex-specific regulation of social motivation by extrahypothalamic vasopressin”) by Dr. Aras Petrulis at the 14th World Congress on Neurohypophysial Hormones, Atlanta, GA
05/16-19/2024
Poster presentations by Dr. Caitlin Friesen, Nicholas Schappaugh, Delenn Hartswick, Sara Guedez Suarez, and Arkar Zaw at the14th World Congress on Neurohypophysial Hormones, Atlanta, GA
05/14/2024
Publication: Rigney, N, Campos-Lira, EC, Kirchner, MK, Wei, W, Belkasim S, Beaumont, R, Singh S, Guedez Suarez, S, Hartswick D, Stern, JE, de Vries, GJ, Petrulis, A. A vasopressin circuit that modulates mouse social investigation and anxiety-like behavior in a sex-specific manner, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38709918/
05/01/2024
Delenn Hartswick won the Writing Across the Curriculum Writing Consultant Award (GSU)
03/29/2024
Sara Guedez Suarez was awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship
Not so recent news
IT'S OFFICIAL! NIKO RIGNEY RECEIVES A RUTH L. KIRSCHSTEIN NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARD (NRSA) INDIVIDUAL PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP.
January 22, 2021
We are all immensely proud of Niko; this is a very significant achievement!
NIKO RIGNEY RECEIVES GSU DISSERTATION GRANT AND THE WILLIAM SUTTLES GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP
December 10, 2020
The Suttles award is granted to the doctoral student with the most outstanding qualifications, achievements and dissertation proposal across the entire university. Way to go Niko, we are so proud of you!
JACK WHYLINGS SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDS HIS DISSERTATION: "REGULATION OF SOCIAL, ANXIETY, AND SICKNESS BEHAVIORS BY FOREBRAIN VASOPRESSIN CELLS IN MICE"
11/19/2020
Congratulations on a fantastic job!
NIKO RIGNEY, RACHAEL BEAUMONT AND ALEX SELKE PRESENT THEIR EXCITING PRELIMINARY DATA
10/30/2020
at the GSU NIBL (Neuroscience Institute Breakfast & Lecture) series. https://tinyurl.com/gsunibl.
CONGRATULATIONS TO NIKO RIGNEY ON HER NRSA SCORE
10/28/2020
An impressive and eminently fundable 2nd percentile score!
JACK WHYLINGS ET AL PAPER ON PVN AVP AND SICKNESS IS PUBLISHED
10/22/2020
“Removal of Vasopressin cells from the Paraventricular Nucleus of the Hypothalamus enhances LPS-induced sickness behavior in mice” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology (DOI: 10.1111/jne.12915). Go Team!!
SELMA BELKASIM IS OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED AS A MASTERS STUDENT
10/20/2020
to continue her great work in lab!!
NIKO RIGNEY IS AWARDED A HONEYCUTT FELLOWSHIP
09/23/2020
in recognition of her outstanding performance as a neuroscience graduate student at GSU.
MICHAEL HOHL'S LAST DAY IN LAB
10/28/2020
Off to Emory! Bittersweet moment.
ADAM ZBIB IS A NEW UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT IN THE LAB
08/20/2020
Welcome!
ALEXANDRA SELKE IS THE NEW PHD STUDENT IN THE LAB
07/01/2020
Great projects await!
BEHNOUSH DADKHAH IS JOINING US AS A NEW MASTERS STUDENT
07/01/2020
She will work to define the complimentary roles of oxytocin and vasopressin receptors in lateral septum. Stay tuned!
NIKO RIGNEY ET AL PAPER ON PVN AVP AND BEHAVIOR IS PUBLISHED
06/15/2020
“Sex Differences in the Control of Social Investigation and Anxiety by Vasopressin Cells of the Paraventricular Nucleus of the Hypothalamus” has been accepted for publication in Neuroendocrinology (DOI: 10.1159/000509421 (PMID: 32541145)). Another great team effort!
DR. DE VRIES CO-AUTHORED A LANCET PAPER
06/15/2020
entitled “Sex and gender: modifiers of health, disease, and medicine” that has just been published. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31561-0 (PMID: 32828189). Kinda a big deal!
TIMOTHY COPELAND AND BRIAN REID START AS MASTERS STUDENTS IN THE LAB
05/30/2020
and will be working on testing our new Avpr1a-cre mouse to make sure they are a great resource for the lab and others.
LAB RECEIVES A BRAINS AND BEHAVIOR SEED GRANT (GSU)
05/02/2020
to develop a conditional vasopressin 1a receptor knockout mouse line. Super excited to have another tool in our toolbox! (https://neuroscience.gsu.edu/brains-behavior/seed-grants/).
NIKO RIGNEY: SERVICE TO THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY
05/01/2020
Niko is now co-President of the Neuroscience Graduate Student Association (NGSA) at GSU and a student representative for the Atlanta chapter of the Society for Neuroscience (ACSfN). Great opportunities for service to our research community! https://neuroscience.gsu.edu/graduate/ngsa/.
SELMA BELKASIM IS A NEW UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT IN THE LAB
04/30/2020
Welcome!
OUR LAB MOVES TO A LARGER SPACE
04/20/2020
Petit Science Center 858. Finally a lab with windows!
NIKO RIGNEY RECEIVES TRAVEL AWARD
02/28/2020
to present at the 2020 OSSD…just before the conference is canceled
DR. PETRULIS IS BACK FROM NIH PANEL REVIEW
02/28/2020
The NRSA F02A panel had lots of great applications!
NIKO AND RACHAEL’S PAPER ON V1A RECEPTOR FUNCTION IS ACCEPTED
02/10/2020
“Sex differences in vasopressin 1a receptor regulation of social communication within the lateral habenula and dorsal raphe of mice” has been accepted for publication in Hormones and Behavior (DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104715 (PMID: 32067962)). Very cool results!
NIKO RIGNEY: SERVICE TO THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY
01/27/2020
Niko Rigney has joined the Professional Development Committee of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN). An excellent way to help fellow students in our field!
DR. PETRULIS PUBLISHED A REVIEW CHAPTER THE MEDIAL AMYGDALA
01/11/2020
“Structure and Function of the Medial Amygdala is now out in J. H. Urban & J. A. Rosenkranz (Eds.), Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience: Amygdala Structure and Function, pp. 39-61. Oxford: Academic Press. (DOI.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815134-1.00002-7). Everything you ever wanted to know about the medial amygdala can be found here.