Federal Project Grant Summary

Yale University received a $100,228 Project Grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) effective October 27, 2026, with completion targeted for May 31, 2029. The award supports neuroscience research investigating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the comorbidity of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The project will employ preclinical research methodologies—including electrophysiology, dual-color fiber photometry, and behavioral assays conducted in mice—to examine how stress exposure disrupts excitation-inhibition balance in the medial prefrontal cortex and drives pathological alcohol consumption.

The funded research will deliver empirical evidence on two primary research objectives: (1) assessing the impact of stress on alcohol consumption in binge-drinking models, and (2) examining stress effects on motivation for alcohol use following prolonged alcohol exposure. The study explicitly investigates sex differences in synaptic transmission mechanisms relevant to comorbid AUD/PTSD, with a focus on evaluating the efficacy of AMN082, a metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 allosteric agonist, as a potential pharmacological intervention for reducing both pathological alcohol use and PTSD-like behaviors. Research will be conducted at Yale's New Haven, Connecticut campus and performed under the NIAAA's continuous rolling-submission funding model for alcohol abuse and alcoholism research.