Erin Calipari

Erin Calipari is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms of addiction, particularly examining dopamine signaling, epigenetic regulation, and neural circuit dynamics in response to drugs like cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. She investigates how sex differences influence addiction vulnerability and behavioral outcomes through studies on GABA receptor regulation, cholinergic interactions, and microbiome-gut-brain axis effects.

Her work integrates electrophysiological, molecular, and behavioral approaches to understand how drug exposure alters neural circuits, including mesolimbic pathway activity and nucleus accumbens plasticity. Key areas include cocaine-induced ensemble formation, the role of histone acetyltransferases like KAT2A, and the impact of environmental factors such as stress and food restriction on reward processing.

Research extends to translational models of addiction comorbidities, exploring how metabolic health, microbiota-derived metabolites, and dopamine release dynamics predict individual differences in drug-seeking behavior. Her studies highlight the importance of sex-specific mechanisms in addiction, aiming to identify novel therapeutic targets for substance use disorders.