Mikki Schantell Receives NIH R36 Award

On August 1st, PhD student Mikki Schantell, a member of the DICoN lab, was awarded an NIH Dissertation Award titled "Methamphetamine and HIV status modulate the neural dynamics underlying executive dysfunction and emotion dysregulation". Executive dysfunction and emotion dysregulation are both antecedents and consequences of HIV infection and methamphetamine use disorder, further contributing to an insurmountable cycle of harmful perturbations to these intricate neural circuits. However, the independent and synergistic contributions of HIV and methamphetamine use disorder to these aberrant neural processes remain poorly understood. Ms. Schantell will use an advanced dynamic functional brain mapping approach to illuminate neurophysiological markers of the effects of HIV and methamphetamine use disorder, which will open the door for more personalized interventions using the latest neuromodulatory and pharmacological techniques.

The goal of this FOA is to support doctoral candidates from a variety of academic disciplines for up to two years for the completion of the doctoral dissertation research project. This award is aimed at facilitate the entry of promising new investigators into the field of substance use/substance use disorder (SU(D) research, enhancing the pool of highly talented SU(D) researchers.