Sonja Plasil Successfully Defends Doctoral Dissertation

Congratulations to Sonja L. Plasil, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation entitled “Long Noncoding RNA Dysregulation Alters Ethanol Drinking Behavior and Ethanol-Related Behavioral Phenotypes” on April 13, 2023. Gregg E. Homanics, PhD (Professor of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, Neurobiology, and Pharmacology & Chemical Biology) served as Sonja’s primary mentor for her doctoral graduate studies. Sean Farris, PhD (Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine and Biomedical Informatics) served as co-sponsor. During her graduate career in the Molecular Pharmacology graduate program at the University of Pittsburgh, Sonja received support from a variety of prestigious sources, including a Student Merit Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism, an NIH T32 training fellowship in Pharmacological Sciences, the William C. De Groat Neuropharmacology Developmental Fellowship, and an F31 individual predoctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Later this summer, Dr. Plasil will continue her training in addiction research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Diego.