Publications
Reln Haploinsufficiency Enhances Fentanyl-Induced Locomotion and Dorsal Striatal Activity Without Affecting Opioid Reinforcement and Relapse-Like Behavior
Carl Litif, Avraham M. Libster, Shane Desfor, Tanieng Huang, Leanne Liaw, Annika Cheng, Francesca Telese
Genes, Brain and Behavior, 2026, vol. 25, issue 5, e70072
Reelin coordinates neuronal positioning and Müller glia scaffold maturation during retinal development
Priya Purohit, Simran Purohit, Yinuo Meng, William Cho, Francesca Telese, Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk
bioRxiv (2026)
GWAS and multimodal transcriptomic profiling of human otolithic organs characterize the genetic architecture of balance in the elderly
Seyed Mehdi Esmaeili-Fard, Adam X. Maihofer, Thomas W. Willis, Elizabeth A. Mikita, Jacquelyn A. Johnson, Daniel Munro, Ashley Kumar, Narayan Pokhrel, Abraham A. Palmer, Caroline M. Nievergelt, Francesca Telese, Rick A. Friedman, Pejman Mohammadi, Royce E. Clifford
medRxiv (2026)
The development of FEDUPP: feeding experimentation device users processing package to assess learning and cognitive flexibility
Mingyang Yao, Avraham M. Libster, Shane Desfor, Freiya Malhotra, Nathalia Castorena, Patricia Montilla-Perez & Francesca Telese
Translational Psychiatry (2026)
Transcription initiation profiling defines the regulatory logic of astrocyte gene regulation
Ashley Kumar, Yanning Zuo, Numaan Formoli, Daimeng Sun, Narayan Pokhrel, Carlos Guzman, Sven Heinz, Christopher Benner, Francesca Telese
bioRxiv 2026.05.03.722406; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.03.722406
Novel candidate genes for vestibular function identified through GWAS in the hybrid mouse diversity panel
Ninoyu, Y., Pan, C., Luu, J., Rashid, S., Johnston, J., Ortega, B., Boussaty, E., Lu, L., Clifford, R., Mohammadi, P., Telese, F., Palmer, A. A., Lusis, A. J., & Friedman, R. A. (2026). Novel candidate genes for vestibular function identified through GWAS in the hybrid mouse diversity panel.
BMC Genomics. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-026-12810-y
Profiling active RNA polymerase II transcription start sites from total RNA by capped small RNA sequencing (csRNA-seq)
Mackenzie K. Meyer, Oluwadamilola J. Olanrewaju, Patricia Montilla-Perez, Anna L. McDonald, Eva M. Rickard, Francesca Telese, Christopher Benner, Marina I. Savenkova & Sascha H. Duttke.
Nat Protoc (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-025-01285-y
Whole Genome Sequencing of Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma Reveals Novel Genetic Changes
Benjamin T Ostrander, Olivia La Monte, Vivienne Li, Vivian Vo, Ashley Kumar, Francesca Telese, Marc S Schwartz, Rick A Friedman (2026).
Otol Neurotol; doi: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000004727.
The development of FEDUPP: Feeding Experimentation Device Users Processing Package to Assess Learning and Cognitive Flexibility
Mingyang Yao, Avraham M. Libster, Shane Desfor, Freiya Malhotra, Nathalia Castorena, Patricia Montilla-Perez, Francesca Telese
bioRxiv 2025; https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.14.670424
Corticotrophin-releasing hormone binding protein in the basolateral amygdala: divergent roles in cocaine and opioid addiction like behaviors
Courtney P. Wood, Arnav Gurha, Caitlin Crook, Angelica Martinez, Selen Dirik, Cloe Moreno, Anirudh Vaiyapuri, Avraham Libster, Francesca Telese, Giordano de Guglielmo
Addiction Neuroscience 2025; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addicn.2025.100221.
Long-Term Effects of Adolescent 5F-MDMB-PICA Intravenous self-administration: Neurobehavioral Consequences and medial Prefrontal Cortex Dysfunction in Adult Mice
Francesca Caria, Avraham Libster, Shane Desfor, Francesca Telese, Gaetano Di Chiara, Maria Antonietta De Luca
bioRxiv 2025.06.26.661592; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.26.661592
Perinatal Fentanyl Exposure Drives Enduring Addiction Risk and Central Amygdala Gene Dysregulation
Courtney P. Wood, Yeji Shin, Maria G. Balaguer, Paola Campo, Selen Dirik, Bryan A. Montoya, Gregory M. R. Cook, Gabrielle M. Palermo, Parsa K. Naghshineh, Alex Morgan, Sara R. M. U. Rahman, Abraham A. Palmer, Francesca Telese, Giordano de Guglielmo. (2025). Neuropharmacology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2025.110581.
Perinatal Fentanyl Exposure Drives Enduring Addiction Risk and Central Amygdala Gene Dysregulation
Courtney P. Wood, Yeji Shin, Maria G. Balaguer, Paola Campo, Selen Dirik, Bryan A. Montoya, Gregory M. R. Cook, Gabrielle M. Palermo, Parsa K. Naghshineh, Alex Morgan, Sara R. M. U. Rahman, Abraham A. Palmer, Francesca Telese, Giordano de Guglielmo. (2025). bioRxiv; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.20.655167
Single-Nucleus Transcriptomics Identifies Neuroblast Migration Programs Sensitive to Reelin and Cannabis in the Adolescent Nucleus Accumbens.
Yanning Zuo, Numaan Formoli, Avraham Libster, Daimeng Sun, Andrew Turner, Attilio Iemolo, Francesca Telese. (2025). bioRxiv; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.04.03.646846
TM7SF3 controls TEAD1 splicing to prevent MASH-induced liver fibrosis
Isaac R, Bandyopadhyay G, Rohm TV, Kang S, Wang J, Pokhrel N, Sakane S, Zapata R, Libster AM, Vinik Y, Berhan A, Kisseleva T, Borok Z, Zick Y, Telese F, Webster NJG, Olefsky JM. (2024). Cell Metabolism.
A revamped rat reference genome improves the discovery of genetic diversity in laboratory rats
de Jong TV, Pan Y, Rastas P, Munro D, Tutaj M, Akil H, Benner C, Chen D, Chitre AS, Chow W, Colonna V, Dalgard CL, Demos WM, Doris PA, Garrison E, Geurts AM, Gunturkun HM, Guryev V, Hourlier T, Howe K, Huang J, Kalbfleisch T, Kim P, Li L, Mahaffey S, Martin FJ, Mohammadi P, Ozel AB, Polesskaya O, Pravenec M, Prins P, Sebat J, Smith JR, Solberg Woods LC, Tabakoff B, Tracey A, Uliano-Silva M, Villani F, Wang H, Sharp BM, Telese F, Jiang Z, Saba L, Wang X, Murphy TD, Palmer AA, Kwitek AE, Dwinell MR, Williams RW, Li JZ, Chen H. (2024). Cell Genomics
Genetic architecture distinguishes tinnitus from hearing loss
Clifford RE, Maihofer AX, Chatzinakos C, Coleman JRI, Daskalakis NP, Gasperi M, Hogan K, Mikita EA, Stein MB, Tcheandjieu C, Telese F, Zuo Y, Ryan AF, Nievergelt CM. (2024). Nature Communications
Nuclear receptor 5A2 regulation of Agrp underlies olanzapine-induced hyperphagia
Zapata RC, Zhang D, Libster A, Porcu A, Montilla-Perez P, Nur A, Xu B, Zhang Z, Correa SM, Liu C, Telese F, Osborn O. (2023). Molecular Psychiatry
The long non-coding RNA MALAT1 regulates intestine host-microbe interactions and polyposis
Long T, Hernandez JE, Ma S, Steele S, Luo C, Li Y, Xie Q, Telese F, Zhou B, Huang WJM. (2023). Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
Strain and sex-related behavioral variability of oxycodone dependence in rats
Doyle MR, Martinez AR, Qiao R, Dirik S, Di Ottavio F, Pascasio G, Martin-Fardon R, Benner C, George O, Telese F, de Guglielmo G. (2023). Neuropharmacology