Joseph H. Shelton Professor of Neuropharmacology & Neurotoxicology
Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics
Joint Appointment - Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Adjunct Appointment - Dept. of Psychology, TAMU
Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (TAMU/TAMHSC)

371 Reynolds Medical Building (MS 1114)

College Station, TX 77843-1114

Phone: 979-845-2888
Fax: 979-845-0699
Email: gdfrye@medicine.tamhsc.edu
Frye NIH Biosketch (PDF)

Education

Ph.D., Pharmacology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1977)

NIH Postdoctoral fellow, Neuropharmacology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Research Interests

My research focuses on the neuropharmacologic, cellular and molecular mechanisms by which central nervous system (CNS) depressant drugs such as ethanol, anti-anxiety drugs, sedative-hypnotics and general anesthetics cause intoxication. In addition, we are interested in how ethanol intoxication activates adaptive responses in the nervous system to cause acute and chronic functional tolerance, physical dependence and the withdrawal syndrome (ie., DTs). We also study ethanol neurotoxicology in the fetal alcohol syndrome and alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorders where ethanol intoxication has teratogenic actions to disrupt critical periods of neuronal development and cause lasting impairment of cognitive brain function.

Studies focus on neurotransmitter receptors (GABA, glutamate, serotonin and acetylcholine) which are targets for ethanol in the adult CNS and which play important roles in neuronal development in the immature developing brain. We are studying the impact of ethanol on the formation and refinement of brain synapses as reflected by altered development of GABAergic miniature potentials. Our primary tools for studying neuronal responses are electrophysiological and include patch clamp whole cell recording in single neurons, in brain slices, acutely isolated from brain slices or in dispersed primary neuronal cell cultures. Most of this work has been supported by peer-reviewed NIH grants from the National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/.

I also participate as a member of the training faculty for the Texas Consortium in Behavioral Neuroscience.

I participate in graduate training as a member of the faculty in the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience.

Selected Publications

(Search for Frye articles in PubMed)

Huang, LZ, Hsiao, SH, Trzeciakowski, J, Frye, GD and Winzer-Serhan, UH. (2006) "Chronic nicotine induces growth retardation in neonatal rat pups". Life Sciences 78:1483-1493. View PDF

DuBois, DW, Trzeciakowski, JP, Parrish, AR and Frye, GD. (2006) "GABAergic miniature postsynaptic currents in septal neurons show differential allosteric sensitivity after binge-like ethanol exposure". Brain Res., 1089:101-115. View PDF

Hsiao, SH, DuBois, DW, Miranda, R and Frye, GD. (2004) "Critically-timed ethanol exposure reduces GABAAR function of septal neurons developing in vivo but not in vitro". Brain Res 1008:69-80. View PDF

DuBois, DW, Parrish, AR, Trzeciakowski, JP and Frye, GD. (2004) "Binge ethanol exposure delays development of GABAergic miniature currents in septal neurons Dev". Br. Res. 152:199-212. View PDF

Hsiao, SH and Frye, GD. (2003) "AMPA receptors on developing medial septum/diagonal band neurons are sensitive to early postnatal binge-like ethanol exposure".Dev. Brain Res. 142:89-99. View PDF

Botting, SK, Frye, GD, Pulido, MD and McCool, BA. (2003) "Effects of chronic alcohol ingestion on rat lateral/basolateral amygdala ligand-gated chloride channels". Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 985:479-480.

McCool, BA, Frye, GD, Pulido, MD and Botting, SK. (2003) "Effects of chronic ethonal consumption on rat GABAA and stychnine-sensitive glycine receptors expressed by lateral/basolateral Amygdala neurons". Brain Res. 963:165-177.

Hsiao, SH, Parrish, AR, Nahm, SS, Abbott, LC, McCool, BA and Frye, GD. (2002) "Effects of early postnatal ethanol intubation on GABAergic synaptic proteins". Dev. Brain Res. 138:177-185. View PDF

Hsiao, SH, Acevedo, JL, DuBois, DW, Smith, KR, West, JR and Frye, GD. (2001) "Early postnatal ethanol intubation blunts GABAA receptor up-regulation and modifies 3alpha-hydroxy-5alpha-pregnan-20-one sensitivity in rat MS/DB neurons". Dev. Brain Res. 130:25-45. View PDF

Frye, GD and Fincher, AS. (2000) "Sustained ethanol inhibition of native AMPA receptors on medial septum/diagonal band (MS/DB) neurons". Brit. J. Pharmacol., 129:87-94. View PDF

Hsiao, SH, West, JR, Mahoney, JC, and Frye, GD. (1999) "Postnatal ethanol exposure blunts up-regulation of GABAA receptor currents in Purkinje neurons". Brain Res. 832:124-135. View PDF

Grover, CA, Wallace, KA, Lindberg, SA and Frye, GD. (1998) "Ethanol inhibition of NMDA currents in acutely dissociated medial septum/diagonal band neurons from ethanol dependent rats". Brain Res. 782:43-52.

Hsiao, SH, Mahoney, JC, West, JR, and Frye, GD. (1998) "Development of GABAA receptors on medial septum/diagonal band (MS/DB) neurons after postnatal ethanol exposure". Brain Res. 810:100-113. View PDF