Marco Venniro

Marco Venniro is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, with a secondary appointment in Psychiatry. He holds PhDs in Pharmacology (University of Palermo, 2012) and Translational Biomedicine (University of Verona, 2016). His postdoctoral work in Dr. Yavin Shaham's lab at NIH informed his current research.

Research Focus: Behavioral and translational neuroscience, particularly the role of social reward in neuropsychiatric disorders like addiction. He develops animal models to study drug relapse mechanisms and the protective effects of non-drug rewards. Key areas include the amygdala's role in craving, decision-making processes, and translational research strategies.

Key Contributions: Pioneered the operant social self-administration model to study neural mechanisms underlying social behavior and addiction. Explores how social interaction can mitigate drug-seeking behavior, with a focus on sex differences and relapse prevention. Recent work investigates microglial roles in cocaine withdrawal and social odor's impact on drug craving.

Affiliations & Lab: Leads the Venniro Lab at UMSOM, employing techniques like in vivo electrophysiology and molecular biology. Collaborates on projects funded by NIH and other agencies, though specific grants aren't detailed here.

Future Directions: Expanding social behavior models to Autism Spectrum Disorder and optimizing translational validity of addiction research. Investigating neuroimmune interactions in addiction and developing novel therapeutic targets like calcitonin receptors.