The goal of work in the Gore Laboratory is to understand the neuroendocrine control of reproduction and sex differences in the brain during development and aging. We are interested in hormone actions (especially estrogens) in the brain, and perturbation of these processes by environmental hormone disruptors. One line of research focuses on molecular and cellular changes to the aging female hypothalamus, and estrogen effects on the aging brain as a model for menopause. A second line of research seeks to understand how prenatal exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors (EDCs) causes molecular epigenetic modifications and cellular changes to the developing hypothalamus and the manifestations of these effects later in life, and transgenerationally. The outcomes of this developmental reprogramming by EDCs include perturbations in brain structure, neural phenotypic properties, and sexually dimorphic behaviors in adulthood. Our team uses comprehensive behavioral, physiological, neuroanatomical, immunohistochemical (light and electron microscopy), and molecular approaches to address these questions on the neurobiological control of reproduction across the life cycle.

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