# Pilot Project Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · JACKSON LABORATORY · 2020 · $182,916

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT PILOT PROJECT CORE
The Center for Systems Neurogenetics of Addiction (CSNA) will offer pilot project opportunities to support the
development of future CSNA-affiliated projects. Pilot projects will create critical opportunities for new
investigators to generate key preliminary data for future systems genetic studies of addiction and will enable
established investigators to test new hypotheses and migrate their research into the use of novel mouse
genetic platforms for the assessment of biobehavioral addiction risk. In the initial phase of the program, we
have selected three pilot projects. The first uses the phenomenal genetic diversity in the CC/DO inbred
founders to test for modifiers of a new cocaine sensitization quantitative trait gene recently discovered by QTL
analysis in closely related mouse strains, Cyfip2, and makes use of the CSNA Behavioral Phenotyping Core to
extrapolate the effects of this polymorphism from cocaine sensitization to behavior in drug self-administration
paradigms. The second pilot project comes from an established human geneticist. This is a translational
genetics project, aimed to model and characterized methamphetamine use-related variants discovered in
human genetic studies of addiction. Candidate variants will be engineered into the laboratory mouse using
BAC transgenic strategies. These induced variants will be evaluated through a series of behavioral and
molecular experiments. A third pilot project will enable integration of the CSNA's transcriptomic and genetic
findings with epigenetic analysis by evaluating open chromatin in cocaine treated and control mice from the
CC/DO founder strains. Future pilot projects will be selected from an open solicitation to the addiction research
community and will be selected by the Internal Advisory Board in consultation with the External Advisory Board
through a process coordinated by the Administrative Core. Criteria for the projects include overall impact,
innovation, investigator, approach and feasibility within the CSNA, significance and relevance to the center,
and likelihood to develop into center-affiliated, funded projects.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9933848
- **Project number:** 5P50DA039841-05
- **Recipient organization:** JACKSON LABORATORY
- **Principal Investigator:** Elissa J Chesler
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $182,916
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9933848

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9933848, Pilot Project Core (5P50DA039841-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9933848. Licensed CC0.

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