Assistant professor’s paper recognized for “Leading Research Achievements”

Kevin Beier, University of California, Irvine assistant professor of physiology & biophysics, had a paper cited by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, as among the year’s “Leading Research Achievements” in 2022. Published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Cell Reports, the article describes the team’s discovery of an extended amygdala-midbrain circuit associated with cocaine addiction.  Distinct from the classic dopamine “reward circuit,” this newly discovered circuit regulates withdrawal anxiety and the urge to take cocaine, offering a new therapeutic target for reducing negative effects and helping prevent relapse. “I appreciate this recognition from the foundation, which acknowledges our paper’s important contribution to the continued advances in psychiatric research progress,” Beier says. He also holds joint appointments in neurobiology and behavior in the School of Biological Sciences, in biomedical engineering in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, and in pharmaceutical sciences in the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences. The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation is the largest non-government funder of brain and psychiatric research in the world.