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]
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2022 NIDA IRP Mentoring Awards
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]
Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – May 2022
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]
Structure-activity relationships for 5F-MDMB-PICA and its 5F-pentylindole analogs to induce cannabinoid-like effects in mice
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…
Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – April 2022
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]
Dr. Thorsten Kahnt Wins 2022 AChemS Young Investigator Award for Research in Olfaction or Nasal Chemosensation
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]
Corticosteroid sensitization drives opioid addiction
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 Joins the NIDA IRP
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]
Lateral hypothalamic LEPR neurons drive appetitive but not consummatory behaviors
Featured Paper of the Month – April 2022
Published in Cell Reports by Justin Siemian and Yeka Aponte, et al. of the NIDA IRP Neuronal Circuits and Behavior Unit.
The lateral hypothalamus (LH) has long been known for its involvement in feeding behaviors. Specifically, GABAergic LH (LHVGAT) neurons are known to mediate food intake (consummatory) and food-seeking (appetitive) behaviors, but GABAergic neurons comprise a large population of neurons that can further be divided into genetically identified subpopulations. Therefore, we sought to determine the function of a subset of LHVGAT neurons identified as leptin receptor-expressing neurons (LHLEPR neurons). We used a combination of neuronal ablation, optogenetics, chemogenetics, and in vivo calcium imaging to study the contributions of LHLEPR neurons to the greater LHVGAT population in mice…
Seeking motivation and reward: Roles of dopamine, hippocampus, and supramammillo-septal pathway
Reviews To Read – March 2022. Published in Progress in Neurobiology and Coauthored by Satoshi Ikemoto of the NIDA IRP Neurocircuitry of Motivation Section. Little is known about neural substrates of curiosity and exploratory behavior. We refer to such behavior as information-seeking behavior and propose 1) key neural substrates and 2) the concept of environment… [Read More]
