Jacqueline Barker

Jacqueline Barker, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology at Drexel University College of Medicine. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience from Yale University (2013) and BA in Psychology from Ohio Wesleyan University (2008). Her research focuses on neural circuits underlying behavioral flexibility and cognitive control, particularly in neuropsychiatric illnesses like addiction, PTSD, and depression. Her lab uses electrophysiology, optogenetics, and chemogenetics to study how drug and alcohol exposure disrupt these circuits.

• Education:
  • PhD in Neuroscience, Yale University (2013)
  • BA in Psychology, Ohio Wesleyan University (2008)
• Research Interests:
  • Addiction mechanisms, sex differences in neurobiology, and the impact of alcohol/drug exposure on cognitive control
  • Neural circuitry involved in behavioral flexibility and habit formation

Dr. Barker’s work has been recognized with awards such as the NIAAA Young Investigator Award (2020), Provost Award for Outstanding Scholarly Productivity (2022), and Early Career Mentoring Award (2023). Her lab, comprising four master’s students, a postdoc, and a technician, emphasizes collaborative exploration of neurobiological substrates of maladaptive behaviors. Recent studies investigate HIV-alcohol comorbidity and long-term effects of adolescent ethanol exposure.

Publications span topics like ventral hippocampus function in reward-seeking and infralimbic cortex encoding during habitual behavior. She is actively involved in mentoring and lab training, with a weekly journal review system to stay current in neuroscience advancements.