Khalin E. Nisbett is a Predoctoral Visiting Fellow at the Stress and Addiction Neuroscience Unit under the supervision of Dr. George Koob and Dr. Leandro Vendruscolo. She is also pursuing her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Illinois. Evan Hart is a Post-doctoral IRTA Fellow at the Behavioral Neurophysiology Neuroscience Section under the supervision… [Read More]
Hot Off the Press
Locomotor activity depends on β-arrestin recruitment by the dopamine D1 receptor in the striatal D1-D3 receptor heteromer
Hot Off the Press – August, 2025 Published in Pharmacological Research by Alexandra Evans and Sergi Ferré , et al. of the NIDA IRP Integrative Neurobiology Section. Summary It has been long advocated that the mechanism responsible for the classically established cooperative effect of dopamine D1-like and D2-like receptor agonists in the elicitation of locomotor activity… [Read More]
Reviews To Read
Morphinan Alkaloids and Their Transformations: A Historical Perspective of a Century of Opioid Research in Hungary
Reviews To Read – July 2025. Published in International Journal of Molecular Sciences with contributions by Kenner Rice of the NIDA IRP Drug Design and Synthesis Section. The word opium derives from the ancient Greek word ὄπιον (ópion) for the juice of any plant, but today means the air-dried seed capsule latex of Papaver somniferum. Alkaloid… [Read More]
Featured Papers
Latent Classes of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Adult Substance-use Problems and Psychosocial Outcomes: Complex and Heterogeneous Associations.
Featured Paper of the Month – February 2026
Published in International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction by Emily Herberholz, Rachel Wolchok an David Epstein, et al. of the NIDA IRP Real-world Assessment, Prediction, and Treatment Section.
In this paper, we first showed that we could categorize people by specific patterns/types of ACE exposure, providing a more informative summary than the older approach of just tallying up each person’s total number of types of ACEs. Then we showed that even though ACE exposure can predict later SUD symptoms to a statistically significant degree in people who use alcohol or other drugs, the predictions are too imprecise for case-by-case decision-making
