Project Grant R01DA062041

This federal Project Grant award of $1,039,420 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), will fund a comprehensive study to characterize the transcriptomic profiles and causal functions of neuronal ensembles within key brain circuits that underlie the facilitation and disinhibition of alcohol and opioid seeking behaviors. The grant, awarded to the Medical University of South Carolina, will employ innovative techniques such as single-nucleus RNA sequencing, spatial sequencing, in vivo calcium imaging, and single-cell optogenetics to map the molecular and functional organization of specific neuronal projections from the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and paraventricular thalamus to the nucleus accumbens. The overarching goal is to provide a transformative understanding of the gene expression patterns and targetable substrates within these relevant cell populations, which can inform future treatment strategies for opioid and alcohol use disorders. The project will generate large-scale multimodal datasets that will be made freely available to the scientific community for further study.