Igor Ponomarev

Dr. Igor Ponomarev is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine. His research program focuses on the intersection of genetics, genomics, and neuroscience, with particular emphasis on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). He leads an active research laboratory investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying alcohol-related behaviors and neuroplasticity.

Dr. Ponomarev's research interests center on understanding how genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors interact to control brain gene expression and behavior in AUD. His laboratory employs next-generation sequencing and systems biology approaches to study chromatin (epigenomic) and gene expression (transcriptomic) profiles in brain cells and tissues. A major focus of his work is discovering and prioritizing molecular targets for medication development to prevent and treat AUD and other CNS disorders. His research has pioneered the use of gene co-expression network analysis in the alcohol field and has extended to cell type-specific molecular profiling and neuroimmune mechanisms in alcohol consumption.

His research output shows consistent focus on alcohol-related neuroscience, with recent publications (2021-2025) examining sex differences in alcohol response, pain-alcohol interactions, and molecular targets for medication development. These works demonstrate progression from basic molecular mechanisms to translational applications.

Dr. Ponomarev currently holds two significant NIH grants:

• R01AA027096: 'The Neuroimmune model of excessive alcohol consumption: Transition to Alcohol Use Disorder'
• R03AA028370: 'Effects of chronic alcohol consumption on the synaptic translatome'

His funding supports research on how neuroimmune pathways contribute to the transition from social drinking to AUD and molecular changes at synapses following chronic alcohol exposure. His laboratory provides training in advanced genomic technologies, bioinformatics, and systems biology approaches to students and researchers interested in addiction neuroscience.