Summer Thompson, PhD, Associate Research Scientist in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, has been awarded a Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) through the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
The grant will fund Thompson’s research, “The Role of the Gut Microbiota in Alcohol Seeking and Decision-Making.”
Pathway to Independence Awards aim to facilitate the transition of outstanding postdoctoral researchers from mentored, postdoctoral research positions to independent, tenure-track or equivalent faculty positions.
Thompson’s grant provides two years of funding for continued training, then three years of funding to help her establish her own lab.
Her research investigates the effects of environmental influences on translationally relevant reward-based behaviors in mice, including alcohol-seeking and decision-making paradigms, and the role of the gut microbiota in mediating these effects.