University of California San Diego researchers received a $12.6 million award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to establish the Polysubstance Addiction Research Center.
The center will examine addiction involving cocaine, oxycodone, alcohol and the combination of cocaine and oxycodone, according to a Sept. 30 news release from UCSD. The five-year award will bring together researchers from multiple disciplines, as well as the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
Research will be divided among three interconnected projects focused on brain networks, gene activity in specific types of brain cells and the role the gut and vagus nerve may play in addiction-related behaviors.
The center also plans to expand its addiction biobank. It currently contains more than 40,000 specimens from studies involving cocaine, oxycodone and alcohol and has supported 75 external research projects.
The center builds on six years of collaboration among UC San Diego addiction researchers across more than a dozen laboratories.
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