Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Deficits or surfeits in motivated behavior are key features of numerous and often comorbid psychiatric illnesses. Dr. Megan Fox’s research aims to identify neural mechanisms that drive the development of substance use and stress disorders with an emphasis on opioid use and dependence. The lab uses multidisciplinary approaches that bridge complex behaviors, cell-type-specific transcriptomics, in vivo neurochemistry, and circuit-specific genetic manipulations.
The laboratory's current focus is on circuit-specific transcriptional changes in opioid self-administration and relapse. The lab uses a technically innovative approach that combines next-generation single nuclei RNA sequencing with transsynaptic viral tagging to identify transcriptional changes based on synaptic input.
Based on the transcriptional changes, the lab generates Cre-dependent viruses to manipulate candidate molecules to block drug use and seeking. Then, with in vivo fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, ascertains how drugs and molecular manipulations alter dopamine and norepinephrine release.
Alongside the work on opioid use, Dr. Fox is also pursuing circuit-specific transcriptional changes in stress disorders, with the ultimate goal of unraveling how individual stress-susceptibility increases the liability for developing a substance use disorder.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Postdoctoral Trainee, University of Maryland School of Medicine
2016 → 2020
PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2011 → 2016
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Identifying multi-omic signatures of opioid use and relapse
National Institute on Drug Abuse
7/1/23 → 5/31/24
Project: Research project
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Circuit-specific molecular mechanisms in fentanyl use and relapse
National Institute on Drug Abuse
12/1/21 → 11/30/22
Project: Research project
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Circuit-specific molecular mechanisms in fentanyl use and relapse
National Institute on Drug Abuse
4/1/20 → 3/31/22
Project: Research project
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Adaptations in Nucleus Accumbens Neuron Subtypes Mediate Negative Affective Behaviors in Fentanyl Abstinence
Fox, M. E., Wulff, A. B., Franco, D., Choi, E. Y., Calarco, C. A., Engeln, M., Turner, M. D., Chandra, R., Rhodes, V. M., Thompson, S. M., Ament, S. A. & Lobo, M. K., Mar 15 2023, In: Biological Psychiatry. 93, 6, p. 489-501 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
5 Scopus citations -
Molecular, Circuit, and Stress Response Characterization of Ventral Pallidum Npas1-Neurons
Morais-Silva, G., Campbell, R. R., Nam, H., Basu, M., Pagliusi, M., Fox, M. E., Chan, C. S., Iñiguez, S. D., Ament, S., Cramer, N., Marin, M. T. & Lobo, M. K., Jan 18 2023, In: Journal of Neuroscience. 43, 3, p. 405-418 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access6 Scopus citations -
Transcriptomic profiling of reward and sensory brain areas in perinatal fentanyl exposed juvenile mice
Olusakin, J., Kumar, G., Basu, M., Calarco, C. A., Fox, M. E., Alipio, J. B., Haga, C., Turner, M. D., Keller, A., Ament, S. A. & Lobo, M. K., 2023, (Accepted/In press) In: Neuropsychopharmacology.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
1 Scopus citations -
Chronic Physical and Vicarious Psychosocial Stress Alter Fentanyl Consumption and Nucleus Accumbens Rho GTPases in Male and Female C57BL/6 Mice
Franco, D., Wulff, A. B., Lobo, M. K. & Fox, M. E., Feb 10 2022, In: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 16, 821080.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access5 Scopus citations -
The BDNF-TrkB Pathway Acts Through Nucleus Accumbens D2 Expressing Neurons to Mediate Stress Susceptible Outcomes
Pagliusi, M., Franco, D., Cole, S., Morais-Silva, G., Chandra, R., Fox, M. E., Iñiguez, S. D., Sartori, C. R. & Lobo, M. K., Jun 2 2022, In: Frontiers in Psychiatry. 13, 854494.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access1 Scopus citations