Research Interests
Founded by Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, the Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology (CPN) Section is a joint NIDA and NIAAA laboratory. The overarching goals of the CPN team are to understand mechanisms underlying addiction and to identify new therapeutic targets. These goals are strategic priorities for both NIDA’s and NIAAA’s missions. We use bidirectional translational approaches that span from basic science to experimental medicine proof-of-concept clinical studies, biospecimen analyses, and big data methods. Areas of interest include the intersection between addictive disorders and neuroendocrine systems, gut-brain axis, and other peripheral-central pathways, with the goal of identifying new targets and treatments. One of our primary approaches includes translational inpatient and outpatient human laboratory studies under well-controlled conditions (also referred to as experimental medicine studies). We further expand our work via collaborative transdisciplinary efforts ranging from basic science (e.g., bench, rodent, and non-human-primate work) that inform patient-centered work, to population-based human studies.