Dr. Atwood received a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study how opioid use may lead to changes in the protein tau. Tau is implicated in a number of different neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer Disease.  The Atwood laboratory will be investigating how changes in tau protein may affect brain function that could exacerbate opioid misuse.

Brittnie-lee Duffus completed her master’s thesis and published a paper on the effects of alcohol drinking on the proteome of the striatum.  Link

Damon is an official graduate candidate after passing his qualifying exam in the Medical Neurosciences program at Indiana University School of Medicine. A huge congratulation to him!

Braulio Munoz published a paper on the effects of alcohol drinking on opioid receptor plasticity in the striatum.  Link

Braulio Munoz, PhD started a tenure track assistant professor position at Indiana University School of Medicine in June 2024. A huge congratulation to him on this wonderful accomplishment.

David Haggerty, a former PhD student in the laboratory just published his paper on the final project he worked on in the laboratory. He studied the activity of insular cortex synapses during alcohol drinking. Link

The laboratory will be relocating to the University of Minnesota Medical School in the Department of Pharmacology in June 2024. We will be looking for talented prospective postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, post-bacs, and technicians. Contact Brady Atwood if you are interested in learning more about potential opportunities.

September 8, 2023. Damon Germano and Davian West celebrated their one-year anniversary of joining the Indiana BioMedical Gateway (IBMG) program at IU School of Medicine. They were honored with a white coat given to them by the graduate school and a fancy dinner with friends and family invited. We are very grateful to have these two promising young scientists as a member of our laboratory. Looking forward to all the great work they will be performing in the coming years.

September 1, 2023. After 3 years of hard work and a lot of electrophysiological recordings, Dr. Braulio Muñoz's paper is finally out in Neuropharmacology. This is a study that discovered a new inhibitory pathway in the brain that is regulated by opioid receptors. This pathway may be a novel target for treating alcohol and opioid use disorder. A big congratulations to Braulio for all of his hard work paying off. LINK

August 23, 2023. David Haggerty's final work as a graduate student has now been submitted for review! In the meantime, he posted a copy of the manuscript as a preprint to BioRxiv. He used in vivo fiber photometry to assess the impact of binge alcohol drinking on synaptic transmission at anterior insular cortex inputs to the dorsolateral striatum. He found both brain lateralization and sex-specific effects of alcohol. LINK

July 1, 2023. Dr. Atwood was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure pending on July 1 of 2022 with the notification that tenure would be officially awarded on July 1 of 2023. That day has officially arrived!