Amanda Kentner

                                                What We Do

 

Our laboratory studies how environmental experiences are translated across developmental stages to shape offspring biology, and how subsequent environmental conditions can alter, buffer, or reverse those developmental trajectories. We are particularly interested in how parental stress, immune activation, nutrition, and caregiving influence developmental plasticity through changes in neuroendocrine, immune, neural, and reproductive systems. By understanding how environmental signals become biologically embedded across development, we aim to identify the factors that determine whether early experiences lead to persistent vulnerability or create opportunities for resilience and adaptive change. 

 

Here is a select listing of some of our work:

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Martz J, Hammer B, Langen T.J, Berkowitz B.N, Berkowitz B, Storm J.A, Lu J, Lehri D, Wijenayake S, Marrocco J, Kentner, A.C. (in press). Investigating milk-derived extracellular vesicles as mediators of maternal stress and environmental intervention. Mol Psychiatry. 2025 Nov 17. doi: 10.1038/s41380-025-03346-w. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41249551.

 

Martz, J., Shelton, M.A., Geist, L., Seney, M.L., Kentner, A.C. (2024). Sex differences in offspring risk and resilience following 11β-hydroxylase antagonist in a rodent model of maternal immune activation. Neuropsychopharmacology, 49, 1078-1090. Paper available at:  https://rdcu.be/drZRD.

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DeRosa, H., Caradonna, S.G., Tran, H., Marrocco, J., Kentner, A.C. (2022). Got Milk? Maternal immune activation during the mid-lactational period affects nutritional milk quality and adolescent offspring sensory processing in male and female rats. Molecular Psychiatry, 27, 4829-4842. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01744-y. Paper available at: https://rdcu.be/cUP3e

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Kentner, A.C., Bilbo, S.D., Brown, A.S., Hsiao, E.Y., McAllister, A.K., Meyer, U., Pearce, B.D., Pletnikov, M.V., Yolken, R.H., Bauman, M.D. (2019). Maternal immune activation: reporting guidelines to improve the rigor, reproducibility, and transparency of the model. Neuropsychopharmacology, 44, 275-258, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-018-0185-7. 

 

Kentner, A.C., Cryan, J.F., Brummelte, S. (2019). Resilience priming: translational models for understanding resiliency and adaptation to early-life adversity. Developmental Psychobiology, 61, 350-375,  https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21775.

 

Kentner, A.C., Scalia, S., Shin, J., Migliore, M.M., Rondon-Ortiz, A.N. (2018). Targeted sensory enrichment interventions protect against behavioral and neuroendocrine consequences of early life stress.  

Psychoneuroendocrinology, 98, 74-85,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.07.029.  

 

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Other publications may be found under our 'Publications' section of this website and https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7069-486X.

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