Faculty Mentors

The Training in Research Undergraduate Experience through the Rutgers Addiction Research Center (TRUE RARC) Scholar Program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to engage in research experiences within participating Rutgers faculty labs. Please find a list of participating Principal Investigators (PIs) and descriptions of their research and opportunities within their labs below.

The Barker Lab studies the neural circuits that link stress, pain, aversion, and opioid-related behavior. We focus especially on the lateral habenula, the preoptic area, and their connected networks, with the goal of understanding how these circuits shape pain sensitivity, negative affect, and vulnerability to fentanyl use and misuse. Their research asks how specific brain pathways regulate pain, coping, reward, and drug seeking, and how these processes are altered by stress and chronic pain states. To study these questions, they use rodent behavioral models together with systems neuroscience approaches, including pain and drug self-administration assays, viral and chemogenetic circuit manipulations, fiber photometry, electrophysiology, anatomical tracing, and molecular histology. Ongoing projects examine how habenula-centered circuits contribute to pain-related behavior and fentanyl vulnerability, with the broader goal of identifying mechanisms that could inform improved treatments for chronic pain and opioid use disorder. Students will learn research from every angle, including the project background, understanding and performing key methods such as animal behavior, learning to organize, analyze and graph data, and finally learning to think critically about their results.

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The REACH Alliance focuses on three main outcomes: (1) Improving health and well-being for people in marginalized communities, (2) Understanding and addressing social determinants of health that contribute to, or maintain, health disparities, and (3) Improving available treatments for mental health conditions, so that all people have access to treatment that recognizes and values their identities and experiences. Students will have the opportunity to contribute to literature reviews, data analysis and writing, community outreach events, contacting participants, and data collection.

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The Bello lab is examining the metabolic effects of kratom alkaloids and whether metabolic conditions (such as diabetes and obesity) influence the behavioral reinforcing effects of kratom. His laboratory uses preclinical models to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying binge‑like eating, obesity, and eating disorders, with particular emphasis on noradrenergic and dopaminergic signaling pathways involved in attention, arousal, and reward. Students can expect to learn and contribute to proper animal handling, experimental procedures, and data analysis.

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Dr. Brislin’s research focuses on determining biological mechanisms that contribute to the expression and development of externalizing behavior in adolescence. I am particularly interested in understanding the biological, environmental, and developmental influences on the emergence, persistence, and desistance of antisocial behavior and substance use in adolescence and early adulthood. Towards this end, I incorporate a broad range of methods to better understand this phenotypic expression. I am also trained as a clinical psychologist and am interested in translating these mechanistic findings into clinically relevant measures or interventions for at-risk youth. Students will contribute to recruitment and data collection with clinical populations, literature reviews, and working with basic data analyses.

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Dr. Chen’s research aims to examine how individual-, network-, and neighborhood-level characteristics shape health care delivery and health behaviors, independently and jointly. I uses epidemiological methods and behavioral theories to analyze and synthesize quantitative data and translate the findings into public health recommendations for action or change. Primary research interests include HIV, substance use, health disparities, stigma, social and structural drivers of HIV & substance use. Students will have the opportunity to contribute to literature reviews to support scientific publications, procedure development for a pilot intervention study, and data analysis.

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Dr. Cowan’s work focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of novel interventions in the Emergency Department. Specifically, his group conducts biomedical clinical trials in the Emergency Department and other settings with a focus on pharmacotherapies. The selected student will have the opportunity to assist lab project managers and research associates with screening and data collection for ongoing clinical trials in the Emergency Department.

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The Cuesta Lab uses a multidisciplinary approach that includes behavioral, pharmacological and microbiological techniques to better understand the role of gut microbiota in the vulnerability to develop addiction and substance use disorders across life. Students can expect to contribute to experimental procedures, data analysis, and literature reviews.

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The Translational Psychiatric Genomics (TPG) Lab researches how genetic and environmental influences contribute to the development of patterns of substance use and related behaviors, such as childhood conduct problems and depression, and how we can use that information to inform prevention and intervention. Lab members are involved in a wide variety of research projects including gene identification efforts, twins studies, longitudinal studies, and randomized controlled trials. Undergraduate students will have the opportunity to contribute to a variety of projects assisting with activities such as conducting literature reviews, data cleaning and analysis, and contributing to manuscripts and presentations.

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Dr. Fernandez will be joining Rutgers as the Associate Director of Health Services & Policy within the Rutgers Addiction Research Center at the Brain Health Institute. Dr. Fernandez’s lab studies substance use disorders and addiction within healthcare settings, with a particular focus on improving the identification, prevention, and treatment of alcohol use disorders among patients receiving medical and surgical care. A central goal of the lab’s research is to understand how substance use, especially unhealthy alcohol use, affects medical and surgical outcomes and how healthcare systems can intervene at critical moments in care. Undergraduate research assistants typically support ongoing projects by helping with participant recruitment and assisting project coordination, which may include reviewing eligibility criteria, preparing recruitment materials, and assisting with scheduling or communication with study participants when appropriate. Students may also contribute to data management tasks, such as organizing datasets, conducting data entry, and performing basic data cleaning to ensure research data are accurate and ready for analysis. In addition, students often help with literature reviews and research summaries to support the development of manuscripts, presentations, and new research projects.

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The Holly Lab is interested in how prior exposure to stress changes motivated behaviors (particularly decision making) and the underlying neural circuitry. To study this, they use cutting-edge systems neuroscience approaches in mice, including ways to record (fiber photometry, electrophysiology) and manipulate (optogenetics) specific neural circuits in mice as they make decisions in operant tasks. Under the supervision of a graduate student or postdoc, students will learn how to handle mice and run rodent behavioral experiments, including data analysis. Our first TRUE RARC scholar was even able to design and run her very own independent project by the end of her year.

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Dr. Poore’s research focuses on the genetic etiology of substance use disorders and the relationships between SUDs and other psychiatric disorders (e.g., ADHD, mood and anxiety disorders). She uses statistical modeling and genetic association methods to address these questions. Some ongoing projects include studying how genetic propensity for broad behavioral disinhibition and negative affect, as well as for problematic use of specific substances, predict substance use outcomes across development. Students may contribute to literature reviews, manuscript drafting, making tables and figures, and guiding research questions and interpretation of results.

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Our research uses animal models (rats and mice) to investigate learning and motivation. We are particularly interested in using these models to better understand mental health disorders including addiction. Our main methodology is rodent behavior analysis in experimental settings. One major ongoing project involves sensory-seeking behavior- animals performing actions with the goal of procuring sensory stimuli- and its relation to behavioral addictions. Undergraduate RAs carry out behavior experiments using animals, which includes operating behavior testing equipment, handling animals, ensuring accurate data collection, and maintaining a clean workspace. RAs typically work together and under the supervision of a senior lab member. RAs must be comfortable with handling rodents.

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Dr. Sizemore’s recent projects have focused on developing and testing app-based just-in-time adaptive interventions that focus on teaching positive psychological coping strategies, with the aim of buffering experiences of intersectional minority stress and reducing substance use cravings for sexual minority men living with HIV and stimulant use. Other related observational datasets are available. Students may be involved in transcription of qualitative interviews, qualitative coding of interview/focus group data, quantitative data analysis, using EndNote libraries, and literature review for manuscript development.

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The BEACON Lab aims to: (1) Pinpoint contextual mechanisms that support persistent substance and alcohol use; (2) Explore the impact of substance-free alternatives on substance and alcohol demand; and (3) Develop novel methodologies to understand and address substance use and promote health and wellness among understudied populations (e.g., non-student emerging adults, neurodivergent individuals). Students will have the opportunity to conduct and assist with literature reviews, help administer research sessions, work on IRB protocols, clean data, and conduct basic statistical analyses

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We are interested in the transdiagnostic features of psychopathology. We use a combination of experience sampling, and neuroimaging. Current studies focus on relations between the structure of psychopathology and the ability to resist temptations, and brain changes in chronic alcohol use disorder. Student tasks will range from data management and quality control, running subjects through study procedures, to data analysis, with roles depending upon student interest and existing computer skills. Students with some computer programming experience are preferred.

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