Dr. Karolina Skibicka

Dr Skibicka leads the gut-brain communication laboratory. Her research approach utilizes rat models and applies a wide variety of behavioral neuroscience methodologies and levels of analysis, including behavioral, neuroanatomical, molecular, neuropharmacological, and opto and chemogenetic to investigate the neural basis of gut-brain communication. 

Her laboratory discovered that a gut/brain peptide, GLP-1, and its analogues target the mesolimbic system to reduce food motivated behavior, and later also alcohol intake and reward. Since then, she contributed to an array of key discoveries regrading brain circuits and behaviors controlled by gut-brain communication. Core thread in her research is inclusion and analysis of female subjects and paying particular attention to the influence of sex and sex steroids on the gut-brain circuits investigated.