Eric Zorrilla

Eric Zorrilla, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Translational Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), with a joint appointment in the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences. He is also a member of the Pearson Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research. His research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying motivated behaviors, particularly the interplay between reward circuits and stress systems in conditions like obesity, alcoholism, and binge eating disorders. Dr. Zorrilla employs interdisciplinary approaches combining molecular, pharmacological, and behavioral techniques.

Education: PhD (Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1996), MS (Psychology, UPenn, 1992), BS (Psychology/Economics/Political Science triple major, Duke University, 1991). He has held academic roles at TSRI since 1996, advancing from Postdoctoral Fellow to Associate Professor in 2003.

Research emphasizes genetic/epigenetic factors in reward and stress pathways, with notable contributions to CRF signaling in addiction and the neurobiology of compulsive behaviors. His lab has published influential work on leptin’s role in food demand, insula-striatal circuits in eating disorders, and PDE10A’s role in alcohol dependence. Key achievements include developing rodent models of compulsive eating and stress-related psychiatric disorders.

Awards include the Most Outstanding Graduate Student (UPenn, 1996), multiple paper commendations (PNAS, Science, Neuropsychopharmacology), and Fellowship at the Harold L. Dorris Neurological Research Institute. His work has been featured in high-impact journals and media, including Scientific American and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.