Significance: 

Substance use disorders are characterized by inability to control intake and high rates of relapse. There exists a serious public health need to identify and characterize new and more effective treatments. 

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Goals: 

Move science forward by contributing to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie addiction and to improved treatment of substance use disorders.

Ongoing projects in the lab include:

1) use circuit mapping and pharmacological approaches to identify neural substrates of binge-like drinking

2) use molecular approaches to delineate brain immune signaling pathways that regulate excessive alcohol drinking  

3) use informatics approaches to identify and test novel compounds for drug repurposing for the treatment of alcohol and substance use disorders

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Approaches: 

We are currently using several complementary approaches in mice to carry out the above research goals: a) clinically relevant drug self-administration models (operant drug self-administration and binge-drinking paradigms), b) viral-mediated gene transfer to temporally and spatially control gene expression and neuronal activity, c) behavioral battery of drug and mood-related assays, and d) identification of transcriptional mechanisms and the regulation of gene expression (using RNA and ChIP Seq, qPCR, and sophisticated analysis techniques).