Laura E. O’Dell, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, has been awarded a five-year R01 grant for $2 million from the National Institutes of Health – National Institute on Drug Abuse, to fund her study, “Sex Differences in the Mechanisms that Promote Nicotine Reward and Withdrawal.” The study will investigate the neural mechanisms that promote tobacco use in females.
O’Dell joined UTEP in 2005. Her research interests are in the neural basis of drug addiction with a particular emphasis on studying the underlying biological factors that contribute to enhanced tobacco use in vulnerable populations, such as adolescents, females and persons suffering from metabolic disorders, such as diabetes.