Using Optogenetics to Understand the Neurocircuitry of Addiction

In the last seven years Garret Stuber, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, has worked to characterize neural circuits underlying addiction, depression, and eating disorders. Through his use of optogenetics, his findings have contributed to a more foundational understanding of how drug addiction affects the brain, focusing on synaptic plasticity. For this work, he received the Jacob P. Waletzky Award in 2017.

What initially let you to study addiction, depression, and eating disorders?

Addiction, and neuropsychiatric disease in general, take a tremendous toll on society. These disorders are incredibly expensive from a public health perspective, and they likely — directly or indirectly — impact everyone to some extent.

People close to me have dealt with addiction and mental illness, which has driven me to dedicate my career to better understanding the neurobiology of addiction and reward and, more broadly, of motivated behavior.

I’ve been focused on this since I was an undergraduate and to this day I’m still extremely passionate about this research.

Speaker

Garret Stuber, PhD

Garret Stuber is a primary investigator researching the neurocircuitry underlying motivated behavior at the University of North Carolina (UNC). He received his PhD in neurobiology from UNC Chapel Hill and completed postdoctoral work with Antonello Bonci at the University of California, San Francisco.