Keith EasterlingAssociate Teaching Professor | NBB & Pharmacology

Dr. Easterling was a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at Emory University from 1993-1999 and joined the NBB program in 2000. His research interests include opioids, stimulants, and club drugs, particularly their involvement in addiction and disease. The mechanisms of the initial stages of drug addiction and early-life determinants of adult drug dependence risk are of special interest. Neurotransmitter receptors mediate drug actions in the brain and they are targets for a variety of drugs that might be used to treat addiction. His previous studies were of the regulation of receptors, the effects of early-life stress on later drug use, and the epidemiology of prescription drug abuse.  He teaches full-time now and no longer operates a research laboratory.

Dr. Easterling teaches an NBB core seminar course for seniors (NBB 401), and coordinates the Frontiers in Neuroscience seminar (NBB 482).  He also regularly teaches the NBB electives Medical Neuropathology (NBB 424), and Neuropharmacology & Placebo (NBB 426).  He has offered first-year seminars (NBB 190) devoted to topics such as Anesthesia Awareness and the Neuroscience of Health Behaviors.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 1993
• MPH, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 2014

Teaching

• NBB 401W - Perspectives in Neuroscience and Behavior [every fall]
• NBB 190 - First-Year Seminar [fall]
• NBB 482 - Frontiers in Neuroscience [fall and spring]
• NBB 424 - Medical Neuropathology [spring]
• NBB 426 - Neuropharmacology & Placebo [spring]