# Training Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $765,585

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (Training Core)
In the Training Core, our central goal is education, outreach, and active support for rigorous and effective
implementation of state-of-the-art circuit analysis tools, specifically in the setting of drug of abuse research. Here
we expand upon the team’s existing training infrastructure, but move in new directions essential for the field--
specifically seeking to enable and advance the study of drug abuse and related phenomena with these methods,
and assisting others seeking to learn and apply modern circuit analysis tools to further this mission. In Aim 1 we
specifically leverage our infrastructure for advancing the application of modern optogenetic methods to drug
abuse research, including in the setting of multiunit electrophysiology and behavioral readouts in awake rodents.
Trainees directly benefiting from the Core (with no charged cost or obligation) will include (across all categories
and career stages) 1) P50 Center personnel; 2) all labs from the NIDA intramural research program (including
but not limited to collaborative groups) and leading human brain banks; and 3) researchers across the nation
and world with drug-abuse relevant basic or applied missions. Second, hydrogel-tissue chemistry (HTC) is a
technology for creating composites of biological molecules in tissue covalently linked to polymer hydrogels,
allowing removal of unlinked tissue elements to create transparency and accessibility to macromolecular labels;
the resulting new structure allows high-resolution optical access to structural and molecular detail within intact
tissues without disassembly. In Aim 2 we specifically leverage our infrastructure for advancing the application of
modern HTC including STARmap to drug abuse research, targeting the participant categories above. And third,
fiber photometry is a versatile method for collecting activity information from anatomically and/or genetically-
defined cells and projections across the brain during free behavior, in a manner designed to be exactly aligned
with optogenetic intervention via the same device and positioning in the same experimental subject. In Aim 3,
we specifically leverage our infrastructure for advancing the application of fiber photometry methods to drug
abuse research, targeting the same participant categories with drug-abuse relevant vision. The Training Core,
by disseminating versatile, powerful new circuit-dynamics tools for use in the NIDA Center and for the drug abuse
community more broadly, will advance the understanding of drug altered states, of drug abuse and recovery,
and of the brain itself as a dynamical system. This Core is tightly intertwined with the work in all projects, but we
will be alert to new opportunities for cross-fertilization certain to arise in the Center.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10917018
- **Project number:** 5P50DA042012-07
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Maisie KY Lo
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $765,585
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2028-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10917018

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10917018, Training Core (5P50DA042012-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10917018. Licensed CC0.

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