Aging, Alzheimer disease, vascular dementia, cognitive decline,

Substance use disorder, Self-administration, cocaine, methamphetamine, Methylenedioxypyrovalerone, d-amphetamine, individual variation,

Rodent behavior, Nonhuman animal models, drug discrimination, conditioned place preference and Pavlovian conditioning.

I am a behavioral pharmacologist and a pharmacist by training. I have dedicated the last 15 years of my career to advancing the understanding of substance use disorders through preclinical research.

My research interests span into a wide range of crucial areas in the field of substance use disorders. I collaborate closely with a team of researchers at UNTHSC on an Addiction Treatment Discovery Program, which receives funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The goal of this program is to identify potential treatments for drug dependence. Moreover, within this team, I also collaborate with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to assess the abuse potential of emerging synthetic drugs. Understanding how these novel substances compare to well-known drugs helps in predicting their misuse potential and guiding regulatory decisions.

As an independent researcher, one of my goals is to identify genetic markers associated with drug-liking versus drug-dislike behavior. Genetic insights into such phenotypes could revolutionize our understanding of mechanisms of substance use susceptibility. Thus, paving the way for personalized therapies aimed at preventing dependence.  

In this regard, Dr. Suchismita Acharya and I are collaborating on a pilot study to investigate the effects of novel small molecules to block methamphetamine-seeking behavior.