Former Project Leaders
Dr. Ken WakabayashiPANN: Psychostimulant Addiction and Nutrient-Sensing Neurons: Genetic Targeting to Parse Neuro Pathways
Cocaine and methamphetamine (meth) use disorders may involve nutrient-sensing circuits including melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons in brain areas such as the lateral hypothalamus (LH). The PANN project determines how cocaine or meth experience affects MCH neuronal activity and LH glucose levels, highlighting a possible mechanism, and verify the role of MCH neurons in regulating addiction-like behavior.
Dr. Nicholas HubbardCAMP: Connectomes-Related to Active Methamphetamine-Dependence Project
This project aims to provide objective methods that can be used to aid in identifying future substance use patterns and consequences for individuals who are dependent upon methamphetamine.
Dr. Arthur (Trey) Andrews III MoVES: Mediators of Violence Exposure and Substance Use
The MoVES Project aims to provide data on craving in understudied substances (cocaine, methamphetamine, and opioids) in the overlooked rural setting.
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Dr. Jeffrey Smith RISC: Capturing Rural Injection Risk Network Structures from Continuous-time Interaction Data
The RISC project aims to understand the unique networks and structural risk factors associated with rural drug use in order to understand and lessen the potential for epidemics, even if current infection rates are low.
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Dr. Matthew Johnson CLASS: Cognitive, Large - And Small - Scale
The long-term goals of this project are to predict outcomes for people who use drugs (PWUD) and, in subsequent projects, to apply these techniques to the development of new interventions and the study of other conditions.
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Dr. Gurudutt PendyalaTEAMS: Testing the Efficacy of Ibudilast to Attenuate Meth-Seeking and Associated Synaptic Inflammation at the Synapse
The TEAMS Project advances a critical need for additional research to investigate the value of ibudilast as a possible treatment drug for methamphetamine use.
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Former Pilot Projects
Ash Eliza SmithRe-imagining Place: Rural Substance Use Disorder, Worldbuilding and Community Participatory Design
In this project we seek to demonstrate the power of community engagement in worldbuilding as a way to integrate substance use disorder (SUD) prevention, treatment, and recovery into planning for community wellbeing.
Anna HensonSomatic Avatars: A Creative and Embodied Approach to Support Addiction Recovery
Bridging creative, technical, and socio-behavioral research, this pilot study will create and deliver a curriculum designed to support people who use drugs (PWUD) in recovery from addiction. Building from research supporting the use of yoga and mindfulness techniques in SUD treatment, as well as creative arts therapies, participants will experience movement sessions and avatar design sessions, culminating in the creation of a “Somatic Avatar.” Somatic Avatars are visual 3D personal representations created with software, incorporating movement and metaphor designed by the participants. Drawing from research in games and online identity presentation, the Somatic Avatars aim to be a tool to explore participants’ experience with addiction and recovery, and to externalize and communicate experiences which can be difficult to verbalize.
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Dr. Ann Anderson BerryA Critical Examination of the Incidence of Neonatal Opioid Exposure in Rural Nebraska
This pilot project aims to elucidate rural Nebraska incidence of intrauterine opioid and substances of abuse exposure to identify evidence based educational interventions and treatment opportunities.
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Dr. Palsamy PeriyasamyInvestigating the Therapeutic Potential of N-Acetylcysteine in Alleviating Cocaine-Mediated Microglial Activation
Cocaine abuse poses a significant nationwide concern, impacting the United States, with rising instances in Nebraska. This addiction inflicts severe harm, particularly on the brain, with no existing treatment for mitigating cocaine-induced microglial activation, neuroinflammation, and resultant behavioral changes. Our pilot grant proposal seeks to explore the therapeutic potential of N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) as a target.
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Dr. Roberto Abadie An Ethnographic Exploration of Opioid Agonist Treatment Barriers and Facilitators Among Opioid Users in Rural Nebraska
This project aims to collect ethnographic data on opioid users living in two rural communities in Nebraska to document behavioral and structural factors affecting barriers and facilitators to Opioid Agonist Treatment enrollment.
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Dr. Robin GauthierInterpersonal Conflict and Drug Use in the Great Plains
This project aims to create a dynamic multi-level network model that utilizes relationship characteristics and contextual factors to better understand the interpersonal context of rural drug use.
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Dr. Tierney Lorenz Predictors of Sex-Linked Marijuana and Alcohol Use in Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Women
This project aims to research how individual differences in sexual response may contribute to sexual minority women’s risk for substance use and misuse.
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Dr. Palsamy PeriyasamyCocaine-Mediated Microglial Activation Involves Epigenetic Dysregulation of DNMT1/INCRNA XIST/PPARG Signaling Axis
This project aims to research whether cocaine activates the microglia via lncRNA Xist-DNMT1-mediated epigenetic promoter DNA hypermethylation of PPARG, thereby resulting in elevated secretion of proinflammatory cytokines.
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Dr. Sowmya YelamanchiliSex specific brain derived extracellular vesicle markers associated with chronic methamphetamine use
Though often perceived to be a problem of the inner city, substance abuse has long been prevalent in rural areas. Rural adults have higher rates of alcohol abuse, tobacco use, and methamphetamine use, while prescription drug abuse and heroin use has grown in towns of every size. Factors contributing to substance abuse in rural America include- low education attainment, poverty, unemployment, high risk behaviors and isolation. The current proposal focuses on the potent psychostimulant methamphetamine (MA) that continues to pose a significant threat globally but importantly here in rural Nebraska.
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Dr. Michelle Hughes & Dr. Amanda RodriguezFeasibility of Assessing the Effects of Substance Use on Auditory and Vestibular Function
This pilot project aims to evaluate the feasibility of obtaining auditory and vestibular (balance) function outcomes in a substance-misuse population.
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