Alice Rodriguez earned a B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996 and 2002, respectively. She joined the Conn lab in the summer of 2003 and is currently an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology. Her research interests focus on the discovery of small molecules that selectively modulate the response of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5. A threefold approach is being implemented, beginning with performing a high throughput screen mining for compounds that modulate the glutamate response of mGluR5. In parallel with the HTS, medicinal chemistry studies are being pursued to improve upon the properties of known modulators. Finally, mutagenesis studies will be performed to develop a better understanding of the molecular interactions involved in binding which will subsequently aid in the design of future compounds. Together these approaches will result in the development of novel small molecules that could have a therapeutic effect on a variety of CNS disorders such as schizophrenia, anxiety, and pain.