Visit of the week: I visited CSAN & Heilig Lab. The quality of their research spanning from molecular biology to clinical trials is truly remarkable. I highlight one of the center's excellent papers on ghrelin effects on delay discounting in humans pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37040196/

How do opioids promote addiction? The recent article from the lab of Christian Lüscher in nature beautifully delineates distinct µ-opioid neuronal ensembles mediating reward and relief from fentanyl withdrawal in mice. nature.com/articles/s4158… Michele Petrella Nature News & Views

Time for another CSAN seminar! Today Wolfgang Sommer Uni Heidelberg gave a very nice translational overview on the concepts of #habit and #compulsion in #AUD.

Lab retreat with the preclinical research group. A day full of wonderful science, great discussions and new ideas!

#JNeurosci: Toivainen, Petrella et al. generated and characterized a novel PKCδ-Cre knock-in rat model that offers novel opportunities for functional studies of PKCδ-expressing neurons in behaviors relevant to human conditions. Linköpings universitet jneurosci.org/lookup/DOI/10.…

Whilst there are numerous transgenic mouse lines, rat lines are sparse. Now, we can target PKCdelta neurons in rats too! Our paper on the generation and characterisation of the PKCdelta-cre knock-in rat in JNeurosci SfN Journals

Congratulations to the newly minted doctor doctor Kanat Chanthongdee! He successfully defended his thesis on epigenetic mechanisms underlying fear memories and alcohol relapse CSAN, co-supervised by Estelle Barbier. Interesting discussions with opponent Howard Becker Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)

Why do some heavy drinkers keep choosing alcohol over other rewards, even when it costs them? An interesting paper from the Heilig Lab looks into how drinking severity influences choice when alcohol competes with natural reward.

🧠 Exciting news at CSAN We just wrapped up the last session for our #TMS study about #GABAB receptors in #alcohol consumption. Special thanks to all our participants! Stay tuned for outcomes and insights, and check out our preregistration: osf.io/j4hgs.

She nailed it! Sanne Toivainen Eloff A Swedish classic: the spikning of the thesis. Looking forward to Sanne's PhD defense on April 11th!

Congratulations to our newest doctor Sanne Toivainen Eloff! Last Friday she brilliantly defended her thesis "Compulsive Alcohol Self-Administration in Rats: Neural Mechanisms and Sex Differences".

Our final keynote speaker, Dr. Markus Heilig Heilig Lab, delivered a thought-provoking talk on “Deconstructing alcohol addiction in search of druggable molecular mechanisms”!

A huge thank you to all of our speakers and attendees for making "The Intersection of Stress and Addiction" such a success!

Markus Heilig receives the 2025 Distinguished Researcher Award RSoA! From the report: "Dr. Heilig is clearly an international leader who has done outstanding bench-to-bedside research that has had a huge impact on AUD research and on our society." Congrats from the lab!!

And there is more to celebrate! 🥳 The Eur Behav Pharm Soc. Early Career Award was awarded to Ida Fredriksson CSAN! Grattis Ida!

#ThisWeekInNPP Studies in animal models & healthy humans suggested that increasing the eCB ligand AEA (via FAAH inhibition) may be a novel PTSD treatment - but did it work? Find out in this recent paper from Leah Mayo Matt Hill Heilig Lab & co nature.com/articles/s4138…

Warm congratulations to the extraordinary Ida Fredriksson CSAN for her #EBPS2025 Early Career Award! 👏☀️ Eur Behav Pharm Soc.

Happy birthday to us! Ten years of great science CSAN. We are celebrating in the best possible way during our anniversary retreat: with sharing science, fantastic presentations, and cake! 🥳

Another reason to celebrate! Rebecca Böhme Dr. Rebecca Boehme receives the Eric K. Fernström Prize 2025 for young, particularly promising and successful researchers at Linköping University CSAN . Congratulations!! liu.se/en/news-item/r…

🏆 Chiara Montemitro Chiara Montemitro wins the #ECNP2025 Poster Award for our #TMS study on #GABAB receptors and #alcohol use! Huge honour for our work on novel biomarkers for alcohol addiction. ECNP