Suzy Xu

Program: Neurosciences

Current advisor: Meaghan Creed, PhD

Undergraduate university: University of Manchester, 2019

Enrollment year: 2023

Research summary
I investigate how cellular and molecular adaptations in the ventral pallidum leads to maldaptive reward seeking behavour during opioid withdrawal.

Prescription opioid misuse continues to be an initiating factor for opioid use disorder (OUD). The long-term neuroadaptations that develop after chronic opioid use and withdrawal lead to the development of a negative affect and the urge for relief from this aversive state of opioid withdrawal is the major driver of relapse despite periods of successful abstienence.Ventral pallidum (VP) is a key node in the basal ganglia circuit for reward and aversion processing. While classically considered as an inhibitory nucleus, my lab identified glutamatergic VP neurons (VPGlu) as a discrete neuronal subpopulation whose activation induces an aversive state11, which could drive relapse through the resultant negative affect. My pilot slice physiology data suggests that VPGlu neurons become more excitable and their outputs to the VTA are more efficiently inhibited by opioids following OXY withdrawal. How withdrawal-associated adaptations in VPGlu neurons contribute to behavior symptoms of opioid withdrawal and relapse remain unknown. My thesis work combines head-fixed behaviours, in vivo imaging and functional manipulation tools to address this gap.

Graduate publications