Abstract This proposal describes a 3-year training program for the development of an academic career in the research of psychiatric disease. The candidate is a rising third-year graduate student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Michigan, studying addiction- and PTSD-related behaviors in rats. She obtained degrees in Neuroscience and Animal Science from Virginia Tech while pursuing undergraduate research in behavioral neuroscience before beginning her PhD in neuroscience. To further develop the requisite skills for success in this field, she has identified 3 training objectives: 1) learn to perform behavioral neuroscience experiments and to use chemogenetic and fiber photometry techniques, 2) become competent in designing, analyzing, and interpreting studies and expand foundational research knowledge, and 3) obtain professional development experience such as scientific communication and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training. The project will take place under the auspices of the Department of Psychiatry and the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Michigan. This vigorous research environment includes ample access to behavioral testing facilities, animal housing, surgical equipment, histology and microscopy resources, and it nurtures an expanding group of both basic and translational addiction researchers. The primary mentors are Dr. Jonathan Morrow, who has expertise in Pavlovian conditioning paradigms and the study of individual differences, Dr. Jill Becker, who brings many years of expertise in addiction neuroscience and rigorous study of sex differences, Dr. Shelly Flagel, who has published extensively in Pavlovian conditioned and chemogenetic approaches, and Dr. Christian Burgess, who has experience with fiber photometry methods. Dr. Daniel Leventhal, who is an expert in machine learning and DeepLabCut software, will serve as an Other Significant Contributor (OSC). The proposed research project focuses on shared mechanisms that can confer vulnerability to addiction and commonly comorbid psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. This will be achieved by using viral delivery of designer receptors to gain control over specific neural pathways involved in both appetitive and aversive conditioning, as well as using fiber photometry to record from these pathways during conditioning. Because psychiatric vulnerabilities differ among indivSjeiduals and between the sexes, these experiments will be designed to examine the interplay between biological sex, functional activity in specific neural circuits, and natural phenotypic variations in cue-driven learning. The proposed F31 project is well-aligned with the missions of the NIH and NIDA. The project will train a promising scientist and help clarify neurobiological pathways contributing to addiction and frequently co-occuring disorders, which is a significant public health priority.