Institute for Psychopharmacology

The Institute of Psychopharmacology focuses primarily on addiction research. Our main area of interest is the use of animal models and translational research into alcohol and drug addiction. As addictive behaviour often occurs alongside other psychiatric disorders, particularly anxiety, depression and ADHD, we also investigate these comorbidities. Furthermore, as part of the KFO256 project, we are conducting research into social exclusion and borderline personality disorder.

Eight research groups are affiliated with the Institute of Psychopharmacology: Behavioural Pharmacology (Spanagel), Behavioural Pharmacology in Adolescence (Schneider), Behavioural Genetics (Bilbao), Neuroanatomy (Hansson), Molecular Pharmacology (Sommer), Translational Addiction Research (Sommer, Kiefer) and In silico Pharmacology (Noori).

Based on preclinical findings, we pursue three objectives:

(I). The development of new behavioural therapies, pharmacological interventions and deep brain stimulation for patients with addiction (e.g. pharmacological suppression of the reconsolidation of drug-related memories). GLP-1 agonists and synthetic oxytocin ligands

(II). To investigate the long-term neurobiological consequences of drug abuse and binge drinking in adolescents.

(III) The identification of risk factors for addiction and the development of preventive strategies. The newly established ‘Translational Addiction Research’ working group, supported by the MWK, and our close collaboration with the Addiction Clinic at the CIMH (Prof. F. Kiefer) enable us to rapidly validate our preclinical findings in human subjects and thus swiftly translate our objectives into practical application.

We employ a wide range of methods to pursue our objectives. In the field of behavioural pharmacology, in addition to a variety of standard models (e.g. the reinstatement model), we use two new animal models to generate rats with alcohol or cocaine addiction. These addiction models serve as a starting point for characterising the neuroanatomical and molecular substrates of addictive behaviour. Furthermore, in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry, these models are used to conduct preclinical testing of new anti-relapse compounds. In this context, we also employ in silico methods such as drug repurposing.

We are also investigating gene-environment interactions that contribute to an increased risk of addiction. Various transgenic animal models are used for this purpose, in combination with the drug and environmental factors such as stressors. In translational research, we make particular use of combined animal and human MRI-based methods (spectroscopy, fMRI, phMRI, using 9.4T and 3T scanners respectively) as well as convergent genomic analyses – in which candidate genes are identified from genome-wide association studies and differential gene expression analyses and subsequently functionally validated in transgenic rat models.