Research

I am broadly interested in how early life immune perturbation may affect neurodevelopment and behavior with a focus on sex differences. My main project investigates potential mechanisms underlying social deficits found in a model of prenatal allergic inflammation. A second project I'm involved with focuses on understanding the role that neuroimmune cells may play in the consequences of juvenile traumatic brain injury.

Awards

2022 - 1st Place Talk at the Ohio State Dept. of Psychology Graduate Research Forum

2021 - Welcome Initiative Award, Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

2021 - First-time Attendee Award, Organization for the Study of Sex Differences

2021 - National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

2019 - University Fellowship, The Ohio State University Graduate School

Publications

Breach, M.R., Akouri H.E., Costantine, S., McGovern, N., Dodson, C.M., Dye, C.N., Ringland, A., & Lenz, K.M. (2023). Prenatal allergic inflammation in rats confers sex-specific alterations to oxytocin and vasopressin innervation in social brain regions. Hormones and Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105427 

Breach, M.R. & Lenz, K.M. (2022). Sex Differences in Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Key Role for the Immune System. In: Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2022_308 

Breach, M.R., Dye, C.N., Galan, A., & Lenz, K.M. (2022). Prenatal allergic inflammation in rats programs the developmental trajectory of dendritic spine patterning in brain regions associated with cognitive and social behavior. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 102: 279-291. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2022.02.026. 

Breach, M.R., Dye, C.N., Joshi, A., Platko, S., Gilfarb, R.A., Krug, A. R., ... & Lenz, K.M. (2021). Maternal allergic inflammation in rats impacts the offspring perinatal neuroimmune milieu and the development of social play, locomotor behavior, and cognitive flexibility. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 95: 269-286.   

Moench, K.M., Breach, M. R., & Wellman, C.L. (2020). Prior stress followed by a novel stress challenge results in sex-specific deficits in behavioral flexibility and changes in gene expression in rat medial prefrontal cortex. Hormones and Behavior, 117, 104615. 

Breach, M.R., Moench, K.M., & Wellman, C.L (2019). Social instability in adolescence differentially alters dendritic morphology in the medial prefrontal cortex and its response to stress in adult male and female rats. Developmental Neurobiology, 79: 839– 856. https://doi.org/10.1002/dneu.22723 

Moench, K.M., Breach, M.R., & Wellman, C.L. (2019). Chronic stress produces enduring sex-and region-specific alterations in novel stress-induced c-Fos expression. Neurobiology of Stress, 100147. 

Engleman, E.A., Steagall, K.B., Bredhold, K.E., Breach, M., Kline, H.L., Bell, R.L., Katner, S.N., & Neal-Beliveau, B.S. (2018). Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism to study addictions and a tool for medications screening. Frontiers in Physiology.