Rate My Professor Nirelia Moranton

Nirelia Moranton serves as a Lecturer in the Psychology Department at the University of California, San Diego. She holds a PhD in Anatomy and Structural Biology. Her research interests encompass neuroscience, neurobiology, neuroanatomy, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Previously, she held the position of Senior Researcher in the Department of Psychology at San Diego State University, where her work was associated with the Center for Behavioral Teratology. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty in biology at San Diego Mesa College and Southwestern Community College District.

Moranton's scholarly contributions focus on the consequences of developmental alcohol exposure on brain structure, function, and behavior in rat models, along with evaluations of nutritional and pharmacological interventions to counteract these effects. Her key publications include "Prenatal choline supplementation mitigates behavioral alterations associated with prenatal alcohol exposure in rats" (2010, Birth Defects Research Part A: Clinical and Molecular Teratology, with J.D. Thomas, K.R. Breit, B.R. Monk, and H.D. Dominguez), "Dietary choline levels modify the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure in rats" (2017, Neurotoxicology and Teratology, with K.R. Breit and J.D. Thomas), "Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: experimental treatments and strategies for intervention" (2011, Alcohol Research & Health, with J.D. Thomas), "Acute and Long-Term Purkinje Cell Loss Following a Single Ethanol Binge During the Early Third Trimester Equivalent in the Rat" (2012, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, with R.M.A. Napper), "Postnatal choline supplementation selectively attenuates hippocampal microRNA alterations associated with developmental alcohol exposure" (2017, Alcohol, with S. Balaraman, R.C. Miranda, and J.D. Thomas), and "Administration of memantine during ethanol withdrawal in neonatal rats: effects on long-term ethanol-induced motor incoordination and cerebellar Purkinje cell loss" (2011, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, with N.N.H. McGough, E.P. Riley, and J.D. Thomas). At UCSD, she teaches courses such as PSYC 2.