Vanessa Minervini

Postdoctoral Fellow

Ph.D., Psychology
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Lab: 210-567-4172
Email: minervini@uthscsa.edu
Lab Association: Charles France, Ph.D.
Research Interests

• drug abuse	• opioids
• cannabinoids	• tolerance
• impulsive choice

Research Summary
Currently available pharmacotherapies for treating pain are not effective in some patients and have a number of unwanted and deleterious effects that preclude their use in other patients. My projects in Dr. France’s laboratory are exploring the therapeutic potential of various opioid-cannabinoid drug combinations. A primary goal of this research is to characterize the effects of the drug combinations on performance in complex memory and decision-making tasks before, during, and upon discontinuation of chronic treatment.
 
Accomplishments, Awards and Honors
NRSA Postdoctoral Training Fellow (T32) – UT Health San Antonio – 2015
 
Grants, Funding and Research Support 
NIH/NIDA National Research Service Fellowship Award (F32) – F32DA043348 – March 2017
 
Selected Publications

• Minervini, V., Rowland, N.E., Robertson, K. L., and Foster, T. C. (2015) Role of estrogen receptor-α on food demand elasticity J Exp Anal Behav. May;103(3):553-561
• Rowland, N. E., Giddings, A. M., Minervini, V., and Robertson, K. L. (2014) Economics of food intake in mice: energy yield of the reinforcer Physiol Behav. Sep;136, 104-110
• Minervini, V., Galuska, C. M., and Rowland, N. E. (2014) Effects of price and pellet type on food waste in mice Behav Processes Mar;103:180-183
• Minervini, V. and Branch, M. N. (2013) Tolerance to cocaine’s effects following chronic administration of a dose without detected effects on response rate or pause J Exp Anal Behav. Nov;100(3): 316-332
• Minervini, V., Galuska, C. M., and Maguire, D. R. (2013) Within-session changes in rats’ food- demand elasticity Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis 39, 35-61