Donna Walther

Background

Donna Walther received her B.S. degree in biochemistry from UMBC in 1988 and M.S. degree in Applied Molecular Biology from UMBC in 1989. Donna started working at the NIDA IRP in 1989 as a research biologist in the Molecular Neurobiology Branch under Dr. George Uhl. From 1989-2000, Donna and the members of the Molecular Neurobiology Section assessed mRNA expression levels of the dopamine transporter, human vesicular monoamine transporter, and immediate early genes in rat midbrain by in-situ hybridization and assisted with the cloning of the rat mu opiate receptor.  From 2000-2015, Donna and colleagues identified markers for allelic variants in humans that contribute to vulnerability to complex disorders like alcoholism, nicotine addiction, illegal substance abuse, and Parkinson’s disease by using association genome scanning. She was also able to nominate candidate genes for successful abstinence from smoking and determine the expression levels of several cell adhesion molecule genes mRNA in human postmortem cerebral cortical samples. From March 2015 to September 2016, Donna worked in the Molecular Neuropsychiatry Section under Dr. Jean Lud Cadet. There, Donna worked on determining differentially expressed genes in methamphetamine taking rats. During that time, Donna worked part-time with Dr. Mike Baumann in the Designer Drug Research Unit (DDRU) studying the uptake and releasing properties of newly-emerging drugs of abuse at DAT, NET, and SERT.  In October 2016, Donna joined the DDRU full-time.  Donna is a member of the NIDA Safety Committee, Authorized User for Radiation Safety, and performs administrative tasks such as ordering and property maintenance.