UMD Team Examines Brain Processes to Understand Opioid Relapse
University of Maryland experts in genomics and psychology have teamed up to explore new approaches to help those struggling to leave opioid use disorder behind.
Najib El-Sayed, a professor of cell biology and molecular genetics, is working with Xuan “Anna” Li, an assistant professor of psychology, to uncover genetic and epigenetic changes—how genes are turned on or off—linked to relapse behavior involving oxycodone abuse.
Their work is supported by a $77,500 grant from the UMD Brain and Behavior Institute (BBI), one of three projects selected recently for BBI seed funding.
The research builds upon Li’s work that combines advanced neuroscience techniques with behavioral experiments involving rats, examining how specific activity in the rodent’s brain drives relapse. The goal is to use the results from those earlier experiments to help create a model applicable to human behavior.
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Published on Mon, Feb 24, 2025 - 11:03AM