PD Models

Linking drug action to biological response through advanced preclinical models

Overview

The PD Models Lab brings together expertise in behavioral pharmacology, systems neuroscience and quantitative modeling to evaluate how therapeutic candidates affect complex biological systems. The team develops and applies translational models of substance use disorders, pain, neuropathy and inflammatory conditions, integrating behavioral and physiological assays with molecular, cellular, imaging and computational techniques.

Research capabilities include drug self-administration and choice procedures, pain-depressed behavior assays, abuse-liability assessment, genetically modified animal models, immune cell profiling, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses, calcium and voltage imaging, fiber photometry and empirical, dynamic and AI-assisted modeling. Together, these approaches help investigators characterize drug effects from cellular signaling through complex behavior, evaluate candidate analgesics and treatments for substance use disorders and improve the translation of preclinical findings into clinical outcomes.

Members

• Matthew L. Banks, Ph.D.
• M. Imad Damaj, Ph.D.
• S. Stevens Negus, Ph.D.
• Liya Qiao, Ph.D.
• Thomas D. Roper, Ph.D.