Lina Nerio
Pharmacology & Toxicology PhD Student, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Kansas
Education
M.S. in Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Kansas, 2022
Research Interest
Lina’s research assesses the impact of social stress and anxiety on neurocircuitry governing approach-avoidance and attachment behaviors.
Academic Bio
Lina Nerio received her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the National University of Colombia in 2016. Her undergraduate research involved the extraction and characterization of fixed seed oil from Passiflora mollisima, where she determined its physicochemical and antioxidant properties for pharmaceutical application in heterodispersed systems. After graduation, Lina worked for several years in quality assurance and validation of pharmaceutical manufacturing processes at Pharmetique Labs. She also worked at Pfizer Colombia in regulatory affairs where she was accountable for remediation projects involving regulatory manufacturing and labeling information for Canada, the US, and Latin American countries.
In 2020, Lina was awarded the Fulbright scholarship to conduct graduate studies at the University of Kansas. During her master’s research, Lina studied the role of oxytocin in the regulation of social avoidance in defeated female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). As a PhD student, Lina is currently studying the effects of social defeat stress in the formation of social attachment in prairie voles.
Publications
Nerio LK, Boender AJ, Young LJ, Lamprea MR, & Smith AS (2024) Limbic oxytocin receptor expression alters molecular signaling and social avoidance behavior in females. Front Neurosci. 18: 1409316. PMID: 39081850 [pdf]