MIRI is that proud to announce that PI Dr. Elizabeth Yen received seed funding from the Tufts Initiative on Substance Use and Addiction Program for the grant “Sex-Specific Neural Mechanisms Underlying Prenatal Opioid-Induced Feeding Dysregulation and Metabolic Risks.”
The goal of this initiative, announced by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research in collaboration with Tufts Medical Center, is to establish sustainable efforts using Tufts’ unique constellation of clinical expertise, research, scholarship and commitment to civic engagement, to help the countless individuals and families who have suffered as a result of the opioid crisis.
Dr. Elizabeth Byrnes of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is team lead. This grant will focus on understanding the sex-specific impact of prenatal opioids on the developing brain and metabolic risks. With a translational research focus by Dr. Yen that is clinically driven, Dr. Byrnes’s animal research complements Dr. Yen’s research and enables mechanistic approaches to study the intersection between opioid, brain reward signaling and neuroinflammation that may explain aberrant feeding and growth trajectory in opioid-exposed offspring and the risk of adverse metabolic outcomes.
Learn more about Dr. Yen’s research here.
