• Multi-PI R01 award, NIH/NIDA DA041931 (2022-2027)
• Multi-PI R01 award, NIH/NIDA DA052844 (2020-2025)
• National Institutes of Health, National Research Service Award, F32 (2009-2012)
• Arthur Falek Young Investigator Award, Society on Neuroimmune Pharmacology (2008)
• Bacaner Research Award, University of Minnesota (2006)
• National Institutes of Health, National Research Service Award, F31 (2006)
• National Institutes of Health, National Research Service Award, T32 (2002-2006)

• Member, Society on Neuroimmune Pharmacology
• Member, International Society of Neurovirology
• Review editor, Viral Immunology Section, Frontiers in Immunology

As a member of the Meucci lab, Dr. Kelschenbach is engaged in translational research to study how HIV infection and substance use disorders dysregulate neuronal structure, function, and network activity using a variety of animal and human-based neuroHIV models. Dr. Kelschenbach’s expertise in opioid use disorder and neuroimmune interactions synergize with the Meucci lab’s longstanding interests to uncover how opioids worsen cognitive decline in people with HIV, and to identify novel neuroprotective approaches for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.

Dr. Kelschenbach’s past and ongoing research has extensively used the EcoHIV mouse model to uncover how substance use disorders and neuroimmune mechanisms drive neuroHIV pathology. She has studied how EcoHIV infection recruits immune cells to the central nervous system, how this process contributes to cognitive decline, and how targeting this migration pathway may be therapeutic. This work has better defined the relationship between blood brain barrier integrity and immune cell trafficking to the central nervous system, and how these factors are affected by HIV and further altered by comorbid opioid use.

Dr. Kelschenbach has also shown that morphine tolerance and dependence accelerate EcoHIV-induced cognitive decline, and she examines the neuroimmune mechanisms that bring about this decline. She has recently studied astrocytes role in HIV-induced cognitive decline based on her work generating single nuclei genomics datasets. These data revealed that astrocyte populations in the prefrontal cortex dysregulate semaphorin genes, which may lead to synapse and dendrite remodeling and dysfunction that accelerates neurocognitive impairment.

Dr. Kelschenbach is also interested in the potential therapeutic benefits of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder as an opioid agonist therapeutic. She demonstrated that EcoHIV infected mice treated with buprenorphine have reduced viral burden in the brain, decreased monocyte migration to the brain, and a reversal in EcoHIV induced cognitive impairment. Her ongoing studies examine the signaling pathways downstream of buprenorphine that bring about these changes, with the goal of generating therapeutics to treat HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.

“The single-cell opioid responses in the context of HIV (SCORCH) consortium”
Ament SA, Campbell RR, Lobo MK, Receveur JP, Agrawal K, Borjabad A, Byrareddy SN, Chang L, Clarke D, Emani P, Gabuzda D, Gaulton KJ, Giglio M, Giorgi FM, Gok B, Guda C, Hadas E, Herb BR, Hu W, Huttner A, Ishmam MR, Jacobs MM, Kelschenbach J, Kim DW, Lee C, Liu S, Liu X, Madras BK, Mahurkar AA, Mash DC, Mukamel EA, Niu M, O'Connor RM, Pagan CM, Pang APS, Pillai P, Repunte-Canonigo V, Ruzicka WB, Stanley J, Tickle T, Tsai SA, Wang A, Wills L, Wilson AM, Wright SN, Xu S, Yang J, Zand M, Zhang L, Zhang J, Akbarian S, Buch S, Cheng CS, Corley MJ, Fox HS, Gerstein M, Gummuluru S, Heiman M, Ho YC, Kellis M, Kenny PJ, Kluger Y, Milner TA, Moore DJ, Morgello S, Ndhlovu LC, Rana TM, Sanna PP, Satterlee JS, Sestan N, Spector SA, Spudich S, Tilgner HU, Volsky DJ, White OR, Williams DW, Zeng H
Mol Psychiatry. 2024 Dec;29(12):3950-3961. doi: 10.1038/s41380-024-02620-7. PMID: 38879719

“Protocol for optimizing production and quality control of infective EcoHIV virions”
Alfar HR, Pariser DN, Chanzu H, Joshi S, Coenen DM, Lykins J, Prakhya KS, Potash MJ, Chao W, Kelschenbach J, Volsky DJ, Metcalf-Pate K, Whiteheart SW
STAR Protoc. 2023 Sep 15;4(3):102368. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102368. PMID: 37342907

“CCL2 is required for initiation but not persistence of HIV infection mediated neurocognitive disease in mice”
Kim BH, Hadas E, Kelschenbach J, Chao W, Gu CJ, Potash MJ, Volsky DJ
Sci Rep. 2023 Apr 21;13(1):6577. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-33491-7. PMID: 37085605

“Buprenorphine reverses neurocognitive impairment in EcoHIV infected mice: A potential therapy for HIV-NCI”
Murphy AJ, Kelschenbach J, He H, Chao W, Kim BH, Volsky DJ, Berman JW
Front Immunol. 2022 Oct 7;13:1004985. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1004985. PMID: 36275760

“Prevention and treatment of HIV infection and cognitive disease in mice by innate immune responses”
Dong B, Borjabad A, Kelschenbach J, Chao W, Volsky DJ, Potash MJ
Brain Behav Immun Health. 2020 Mar;3:100054. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2020.100054. PMID: 32699842

Additional publications...