Department of Neurobiology
About our Department
Our research is aligned with three issues of pressing concern to the health and wellbeing of the citizens of Baltimore and Maryland: Addiction, Pain and Aging. We work with colleagues in UMSOM and around the world to create collaborative research, training and outreach programs in these areas.
Research on drug use and addiction—across the lifespan—is the focus of about half of our faculty. We study the lasting consequences of exposure, during development, to cannabis, opioids, nicotine and alcohol. We have established the Substance Use in Pregnancy Center to capitalize on our and those in clinical departments. A second focus is on the neurobiology of drug relapse, with preclinical research in our department dovetailing with clinical work in Psychiatry. A third focus is research on chronic pain, directed at reducing or replacing prescription use of opioids. Our faculty are leaders in the new Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine.
Research on aging and the brain is the focus of about half of our faculty. Efforts span aging-and dementia-related changes in protein structure, metabolic pathways, neuronal and circuit functions, and behavior. In collaboration with UMSOM's Pepper Center for Research on Aging, we collaborate with clinical researchers to develop translational programs in dementia, neurodegeneration and aging.
Our faculty and trainees are affiliated with University of Maryland - Medicine Institute for Neuroscience Discovery (UM-MIND), and with the Graduate Program in Life Sciences (GPILS).
