Corina O. Bondi, PhD | Center for Neuroscience

Associate Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Associate Director, Executive Function and Neuropharmacology, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research

Phone

412-692-9620

E-mail

corina@pitt.edu

Personal Website

Website Link

Education & Training

PhD, University of Texas Health San Antonio (2009)

Campus Address

6124 John G. Rangos Research Center

One-Line Research Description

Therapeutic strategies for complex cognitive deficits after traumatic brain injury

Dr. Bondi’s laboratory explores therapeutic strategies after experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as pharmacotherapies and environmental enrichment, for complex cognitive processing deficits and distinct neurobehavioral and neurochemical alterations relevant to psychiatric disorders. Her team pursues a variety of behavioral, neurochemical, and molecular-based approaches encompassing the overlap of cognitive neuroscience, stress circuitry, and TBI neuropathology, with complex and sensitive tasks such as attentional set-shifting tests (AST), operant tasks of sustained attention and goal-directed behavior (e.g., the 3-choice serial reaction time test, the instrumental learning test), or assays of affect and anxiety being customarily employed in the laboratory. Underlying pathomechanisms are further characterized using a diverse array of techniques such as tissue processing via microscopy, Western blotting, immunostaining, and proteomics. Studying altered monoaminergic neurotransmission responsible for behavioral and mood impairments after brain trauma across the life span (from pediatric to aged rats) is paramount to finding more effective clinically-relevant therapeutic and rehabilitative targets.

Representative Publications

Publications indexed on Pubmed:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/corina.bondi.1/bibliography/52...

Representative publications:

Minchew HM, Radabaugh HL, LaPorte ML, Free KE, Cheng JP, Bondi CO (2021). A combined therapeutic regimen of citalopram and environmental enrichment ameliorates attentional set-shifting performance after brain trauma. Eur J Pharmacol. 904:174174.

Moschonas EH, Leary JB, Memarzadeh K, Bou-Abboud CE, Folweiler KA, Monaco CM, Cheng JP, Kline AE, Bondi CO. Disruption of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons after traumatic brain injury does not compromise environmental enrichment-mediated cognitive benefits. Brain Res. 2020 Oct 26;:147175. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.147175.

Lajud N, Roque A, Cheng JP, Bondi CO, Kline AE. Early Life Stress Preceding Mild Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Increases Neuroinflammation but Does Not Exacerbate Impairment of Cognitive Flexibility during Adolescence. J Neurotrauma. 2020 Nov 6;. doi: 10.1089/neu.2020.7354.

Njoku I, Radabaugh HL, Nicholas MA, Kutash LA, O'Neil DA, Marshall IP, Cheng JP, Kline AE, Bondi CO. Chronic treatment with galantamine rescues reversal learning in an attentional set-shifting test after experimental brain trauma. Exp Neurol. 2019 May;315:32-41. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2019.01.019.

O'Neil DA, Nicholas MA, Lajud N, Kline AE, Bondi CO. Preclinical Models of Traumatic Brain Injury: Emerging Role of Glutamate in the Pathophysiology of Depression. Front Pharmacol. 2018;9:579. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2018.00579.

Bondi CO, Yelleswarapu NK, Day-Cooney J, Memarzadeh K, Folweiler KA, Bou-Abboud CE, Leary JB, Cheng JP, Tehranian-DePasquale R, Kline AE. Systemic administration of donepezil attenuates the efficacy of environmental enrichment on neurobehavioral outcome after experimental traumatic brain injury. Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2018;36(1):45-57.

Kline AE, Leary JB, Radabaugh HL, Cheng JP, Bondi CO. Combination therapies for neurobehavioral and cognitive recovery after experimental traumatic brain injury: Is more better?. Prog Neurobiol. 2016 Jul;142:45-67. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2016.05.002.

Bondi CO, Klitsch KC, Leary JB, Kline AE. Environmental enrichment as a viable neurorehabilitation strategy for experimental traumatic brain injury. J Neurotrauma. 2014 May 15;31(10):873-88.

Bondi CO, Cheng JP, Tennant HM, Monaco CM, Kline AE. Old dog, new tricks: the attentional set-shifting test as a novel cognitive behavioral task after controlled cortical impact injury. J Neurotrauma. 2014 May 15;31(10):926-37.