NIDA - Genetics and Epigenetics Cross Cutting Research

Draft Agenda

ALL TIMES EASTERN

Day 1: June 4, 2026

9:00 - 9:10 am	Welcome Nora D. Volkow, M.D., Director, NIDA
9:10 - 9:40 am	Session 1: Keynote Presentation Erica Korb, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
9:40 – 10:45 am	Session 2: Cell type and circuit mechanisms underlying opioid actions and OUD risk Co-Chairs: Kristen Maynard, Ph.D., Lieber Institute for Brain Development Brion Maher, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University Speakers: Brion Maher, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University Transcriptomic and Methylomic Architecture of Polygenic Risk for Opioid Use Disorder Robert Phillips, Ph.D., Lieber Institute for Brain Development Spatiomolecular Characterization of Human D1-Islands Across the Anterior-Posterior Axis Jeremy Day, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham A Novel Cellular and Circuit Target for Opioids Jennifer Kim, Ph.D., Lieber Institute for Brain Development Characterization of Opioid-Induced Gene Expression in Discrete Habenula Cell Types and Projection Neurons
10:45 am - 12:15 pm	Poster Session A
12:15 - 1:30 pm	Lunch
1:30 - 3:00 pm	Session 3: Concurrent Panels Advancing Discovery: Using Animal Models to Identify and Validate Translational Genetic and Epigenetic Targets Room: E1/E2 Co-Chairs: Lisa Tarantino, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Jason Bubier, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory Speakers: Elizabeth Heller, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania Epigenetic Editing of Cartpt and Cocaine IVSA Jason Bubier, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory Functional Analysis of a Human GWAS Finding for Opioid Overdose Makoto Taniguchi, Ph.D., Medical University of South Carolina R-loops as an Epigenetic Mechanism Regulating Cocaine-Conditioned Behavior Tamara Phillips, Ph.D., Oregon Health & Science University Taar1 as a Therapeutic Target New Approaches to AI-Guided Mechanistic Drug Repurposing for Pan-Substance Use Disorders with Rapid Clinical Evaluation Room: Auditorium Co-Chairs: Dan Jacobson, Ph.D., Oak Ridge National Laboratory Eric Otto Johnson, Ph.D., RTI International Speakers: Dan Jacobson, Ph.D., Oak Ridge National Laboratory A Pan-SUD Systems Biology Framework for Multi-Omic Drug Repurposing and Therapeutic Prioritization Christopher Rentsch, Ph.D., Yale School of Medicine Electronic Health Record-Based Clinical Trial Emulation to Evaluate Candidates in Real-World Populations and Prioritize Prospective Testing Matthew Freiberg, M.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center The Role of Clinical Trials in a Multi-Omics Discovery Pipeline for SUD Treatments Fang Fang, Ph.D., RTI International Biomarker Discovery in Peripheral Blood Demonstrating Brain‑Relevant Mechanistic Convergence in Opioid Exposure
3:00 - 4:00 pm	Session 4: Short Talks Moderator: Kathleen Borgmann Speakers: Urja Achal Bhatt, M.S., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Single Cell Multiomic Analysis of Cannabis Use in People with HIV on ART Wanqiu Chen, Ph.D., Loma Linda University Spatial and Single-Cell Transcriptomics Reveal Region-Specific Metabolic and Developmental Reprogramming Following Prenatal E-Cigarette Exposure Daniel da Silva, Ph.D., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Orthogonal Transcriptional Programs Distinguish Compulsive from Hedonic Alcohol Drinking: Implications for Addiction Neurobiology Christie Fowler, Ph.D., University of California Irvine Transcriptional Plasticity of Ventral Tegmental Area Dopamine Neurons Induced by Cocaine Abstinence Marissa Ehringer, Ph.D., University of Colorado Functional Studies of Genes Identified in Human GWAS of Smoking Behaviors (Clu and Akt2) Anna-Sophia Hartke, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles Genetic Effects on the Physiology of a Hippocampal to Hypothalamic Circuit that Regulates Behaviors Comorbid with Substance Use Disorders Emily Jorgensen, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham Role of KCNQ2/3 Channels in Striatal Response to Dopamine and Cocaine Conditioned Place Preference Pilhwa Lee, Ph.D., Morgan State University Comparison of Microglial-dopaminergic Interaction Between Development and Disease through Time-course Profiles Anna Leonard, B.A., University of Pennsylvania Adolescent Oxycodone Exposure Potentiates Adult Remifentanil Self-administration in Female Mice José Martínez-Magaña, BSc, MSc, DSc, Yale University Deciphering Gene Regulatory Effects of Opioid Use Disorder Risk Variants Through Allelic-Specific DNA Methylation Mapping in Glial Cells Ryan Logan, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Cell Type-Specific Epigenomic and Transcriptional Signatures of Co-Occurring Opioid Use Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder in Human Subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex
4:00 - 5:30 pm	Poster Session B
5:30 pm	Adjourn

Day 2: June 5, 2026

9:00 - 9:05 am	Welcome Udi Ghitza, Ph.D., NIDA Amy Lossie, Ph.D., NIDA Jonathan Pollock, Ph.D., NIDA
9:05 - 10:30 am	Session 5: Big data and beyond: integrating GWAS with multi-omics, organoids, and functional genomic analyses reveals insights into SUDs and comorbidities Co-Chairs: Emma Johnson, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine Joseph Deak, Ph.D., Yale School of Medicine Speakers: Joseph Deak, Ph.D., Yale School of Medicine A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Association Study Meta-Analysis of Cocaine Use Disorder Sylvanus Toikumo, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania Pain-Specific Cell-Type Insights Inform the Shared Genetic Liability of Chronic Pain and Addiction in >1.2 million Individuals Dongbing Lai, Ph.D., Indiana University School of Medicine Identification of Alcohol Use Disorder–Associated And Ethanol-Responsive Proteins in Human Brain Organoids Yunlong Liu, Ph.D., Indiana University School of Medicine Closing the Loop on Addiction GWAS: Multi-Omic Resolution, Peturbational Validation, and Therapeutic Prioritization
10:30 am - 12:00 pm	Poster Session C
12:00 - 1:15 pm	Lunch
1:15 - 2:30 pm	Session 6: Concurrent Panels Linking Genetic Risk to Function in Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) Using Cellular Models Room: Auditorium Co-Chairs: Susan Shen, M.D., Ph.D., University of Iowa Hyejung Won, Ph.D., University of North Carolina Speakers: Ming-Fen Ho, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Pharmacogenomics Research in Substance Use Disorders: Insights from Clinical Trial and Brain Organoids Consuelo Walss-Bass, Ph.D., University of Texas-Houston Human Postmortem-Derived Brain Models of Drug Exposure in Substance Use Disorders Andrew Yoo, Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis Chromatin-Based Somatic Reprogramming to Model Brain Disorders Kristen Brennand, Ph.D., Yale School of Medicine Gene x Cannabis Interactions in Neuropsychiatric disorders (NPDs) A Hard Pill to Swallow: Translational Genetics of Prescription Opioids from Animal to Clinical models Room: E1/E2 Chair: Alexander S. Hatoum, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine Speakers: Sandra Sanchez-Roige, Ph.D., University of California San Diego Prescription Opioid Genetics Study (POGS): Initial Response to Opioids Predicts Opioid Use Disorder Alexander S. Hatoum, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine Pain to Opioid use disorder Pattern Through Sequence (POPS): Genetic, Behavioral, and Environmental Roots Hao Chen, Ph.D., University of Tennessee Health Science Center Initial QTL mapping of Oral Oxycodone Self-Administration in the Hybrid Rat Diversity Panel Jason Bubier, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory Using Human Genetic Studies of OUD to Optimize the Choice of Mouse Strains and Assays for GWAS Variant Characterization and Preclinical Research
2:30 - 4:00 pm	Poster Session D
4:00 – 5:00 pm	Session 7: Short Talks Moderator: Kathleen Borgmann Speakers: Xue Pan, Ph.D., Loma Linda University Spatiotemporal Transcriptomic Mapping of the Rat Brain Across Three Developmental Stages Whitney Ortiz, M.D., Texas Biomedical Research Institute Gut Dysbiosis During Methamphetamine Exposure in SIV-infected, ART-treated Rhesus Macaques Impacts Metabolites Associated with Neurodysfunction via the Microbiota-gut-brain Axis Bareera Qamar, B.S., University of Maryland Modeling Prenatal Opioid Exposure in Human iPSC-derived Medium Spiny Neurons to Study the Structural and Functional Effects of Fentanyl-induced Neurodevelopmental Disruption Adrian Rothenfluh, Ph.D., University of Utah Using a Connectome and Virtual Brain to Identify Neurons for Motivation and Conflict Resolution David Sosnowski, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University Dual Transcriptomic and Epigenomic Signatures of THC Exposure in Human Prefrontal Cortex Development Guy Twa, M.S., University of Alabama Multi-Omic Profiling Reveals Cell-Type-Specific Gene Regulatory Networks in the Rat Nucleus Accumbens Junshi Wang, Ph.D., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai A Single-Cell Connectomic Map Identifies Sexually Dimorphic Circuits in Substance Use and Affective Disorders Anastasia Williams, Ph.D., George Mason University Cannabinoid Modulation of P13K/mTOR Pathway to Decrease NLRP3 Activation and Viral Transcription in HIV-1infected Monocytes Julia Winter, Ph.D., University of Regensburg Epigenetic Editing of Cartpt Promotes Acquisition and Extinction of Cocaine Memory Huiping Zhang, Ph.D., Boston University Differentially Expressed Circular RNAs Across Eight Human Reward-Related Brain Regions Chen Fu, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts A Spectra-Based Framework Identifies Transcriptionally Defined Neuronal Subpopulations Enriched for Somatic Mutations in Neuropsychiatric Disorders
5:00 pm	Adjourn