Dr. Sade Spencer

The Spencer lab's research program is aimed at identifying the neural mechanisms that underlie the development of drug addiction and relapse. Broadly, they are interested in studying the trajectory of neuroplasticity, neurochemistry, and behavior associated with addiction as a relapsing-remitting brain disorder. These interests extend to the comorbidities between drug addiction and other debilitating psychiatric diseases. Some of the ways in which the researchers assess drug effects on the brain is through mapping brain wide cellular activation via protein markers like cfos ex vivo or recording neurotransmitter dynamics via fiber photometry methods in vivo.