National Institute on Drug Abuse - Intramural Research Program
Enhancer viruses for combinatorial cell-subclass-specific labeling. Neuron.
Two studies published last year harnessed single-cell chromatin accessibility to define and test cell-type-distinguishing enhancers for generating AAVs to express transgenes in discrete cell populations, and to study expression correspondence between species. These approaches provide researchers with one avenue to access specific cell types in the brain for targeted population studies and gene therapies. [Read More]
Featured Paper of the Month – June 2022
Published in Neuropsychopharmacology by Zhi-Bing You, Ph.D. and Eliot Gardner, Ph.D., et al. of the NIDA IRP Neuropsychopharmacology Section.
Cocaine addiction is a significant medical and public concern. Despite decades of research effort, development of anti-addiction, anti-craving, and anti-relapse medications for cocaine addiction remains largely unsuccessful. To aid this medication development, more knowledge is needed about the brain circuits and mechanisms that underlie addiction. In the present article, the authors show that: (1) elevation of the brain hormone ghrelin by cocaine plays a critical role in cocaine-taking and in cocaine-seeking behaviors; (2) acquisition of cocaine-taking behavior is associated with enhancement of the stimulatory effects of cocaine and of cocaine-associated environmental cues on brain ghrelin…
Hot Off the Press – May 27, 2022 Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by Dr. Kshitij Jadhav (2019 Predoctoral trainee at NIDA-IRP), Dr. Benjamin Boutrel (Ph.D. supervisor, University of Lausanne, Switzerland) and Dr. Carl Lupica (Project Supervisor, Electrophysiology Research Section, NIDA-IRP). Summary Adolescents are labelled as high risk-taking impulsive individuals… [Read More]
Congratulations to our 2022 Mentoring Award winners! They were honored at the 10th NIDA Research Day and Mentoring Awards ceremony on May 18, 2022. From left to right: Brenda Curtis, Ph.D. – Investigator Mentoring Award and Investigator Mentoring Award; Steven Zhang, Ph.D. – Staff Scientist Mentoring Award; and Katherine Savell, Ph.D. – Postdoctoral Fellow Mentoring… [Read More]
A chromatin integration labelling method enables epigenomic profiling with lower input. Nature Cell Biology.
Here in the article, authors introduce chromatin integration labelling (ChIL), a technique that combines immunostaining, transposase tagging and linear amplification for low-input epigenome/protein-binding profiling even from single cells. Using ChIL followed by sequencing (ChIL–seq), authors reliably detected the distributions of histone modifications and DNA-binding factors in 100–1,000 cells. [Read More]
Featured Paper of the Month – May 2022
Published in Neuropsychopharmacology by Grant Glatfelter, John Partilla and Michael Baumann of the NIDA IRP Designer Drug Research Unit.
5F-MDMB-PICA is a potent synthetic cannabinoid associated with public harm from recreational use. Little is known about the pharmacology of 5F-MDMB-PICA underlying it’s potent effects. This study examined the pharmacological effects of 5F-MDMB-PICA at cannabinoid type 1 receptors (CB1) in mice relative to several structurally related compounds. Results show that certain structural features of the “head” groups of 5F-MDMB-PICA and related compounds dramatically impacts their potencies for CB1 mediated pharmacological effects and for producing cannabinoid-like effects in mice, which is predictive of potency of these compounds in humans…
Closed-loop wearable naloxone injector system. Scientific Reports.
Chan et al. (2021) have developed a wearable device to detect and reverse an opioid overdose by automatically injecting naloxone to a person who has stopped breathing and moving. This proof-of-principal technology has wide-ranging clinical and commercial potential, including helping to reduce the number of fatal opioid overdoses that could have been prevented if naloxone was available. [Read More]
The Association for Chemoreception Sciences has awarded Dr. Thorsten Kahnt with it’s Young Investigator Award for Research in Olfaction or Nasal Chemosensation. Dr. Kahnt is the newest Principal Investigator at the NIDA IRP and he will be leading the Learning and Decision-Making Unit. Congratulations, Dr. Kahnt! Acknowledgements from Dr. Kahnt I am very grateful to the… [Read More]
Hot Off the Press – April 5, 2022 Published in Molecular Psychiatry by Stephanie Carmack and Leandro Vendruscolo et, al. of the NIDA IRP Neurobiology of Addiction Section. Summary The sharp increase in opioid overdose-related deaths in the United States is a public health emergency. An urgent search to uncover the biological mechanisms of opioid… [Read More]
Dr. Thorsten Kahnt has joined the NIDA IRP as an investigator in the Cellular and Neurocomputational Systems Branch where he will be leading the Learning and Decision-Making Unit. Dr. Kahnt comes to us from Northwestern University, where he was recently tenured. Dr Kahnt received his undergraduate degree in psychology from the Free University Berlin. Subsequently,… [Read More]
