Megan Fox

Dr. Megan Fox is an Assistant Professor at Penn State University, affiliated with the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics. She is a member of the Penn State Neuroscience Institute and focuses on elucidating neural mechanisms underlying substance use and stress disorders, particularly opioid dependence. Her work bridges behavioral neuroscience, transcriptomics, and circuit-specific genetic manipulations.

• PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2011–2016)
• Postdoctoral Trainee, University of Maryland School of Medicine (2016–2020)

Dr. Fox’s research emphasizes circuit-specific transcriptional changes in opioid self-administration and relapse. Her lab employs cutting-edge methods like single nuclei RNA sequencing, transsynaptic viral tagging, and in vivo fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to study dopamine and norepinephrine dynamics. She also investigates comorbid stress disorders to understand how stress-susceptibility exacerbates substance use liability.

Recent publications highlight multidisciplinary approaches to fentanyl’s neural effects, including transcriptional landscapes in the ventral tegmental area, adaptations in nucleus accumbens neurons, and stress-induced alterations in Rho GTPases. Key themes include opioid pharmacology, neural circuitry, transcriptomic profiling, and stress-affected behaviors.

Dr. Fox has secured grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute of Mental Health for projects such as Circuit-specific molecular mechanisms in fentanyl use and relapse and Molecular mechanisms of dendritic remodeling in depression. Her work is associated with advancing UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being).