Part of my work investigates the roll of stress on escalation of cocaine self-administration in male and female rats. I am evaluating how an established predator odor model of stress influences self-administered intravenous (I.V.) cocaine intake in male and female rats in short- and long-access paradigms.

In a second part of my dissertation project, I examine sex and time differences in the neurobiology of cocaine self-administering rats using Western Blots.

My third project focuses on the potential role of a pharmaceutical therapeutic to attenuate cocaine self-administration. Here, I study sex differences in operant conditioning and dose response curves in systemic and site-specific drug treatment.