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MIRI PI Dr. Yen Receives TISUA Award

April 8, 2022

MIRI PI Dr. Yen receives TISUA Award.

Elizabeth Yen, MD, MA

MIRI is that proud to announce that PI Dr. Elizabeth Yen received seed funding from the Tufts Initiative on Substance Use and Addiction Program for the grant Sex-Specific Neural Mechanisms Underlying Prenatal Opioid-Induced Feeding Dysregulation and Metabolic Risks.”

The goal of this initiative, announced by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research in collaboration with Tufts Medical Center, is to establish sustainable efforts using Tufts’ unique constellation of clinical expertise, research, scholarship and commitment to civic engagement, to help the countless individuals and families who have suffered as a result of the opioid crisis.

Dr. Elizabeth Byrnes of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is team lead. This grant will focus on understanding the sex-specific impact of prenatal opioids on the developing brain and metabolic risks. With a translational research focus by Dr. Yen that is clinically driven, Dr. Byrnes’s animal research complements Dr. Yen’s research and enables mechanistic approaches to study the intersection between opioid, brain reward signaling and neuroinflammation that may explain aberrant feeding and growth trajectory in opioid-exposed offspring and the risk of adverse metabolic outcomes.

Learn more about Dr. Yen’s research here.

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A New Grant Expands Dr. Elizabeth Yen’s Research
A new, three-year NIH grant will expand Dr. Elizabeth Yen's research and initial pilot study findings about the effects of prenatal opioid exposure in an infant's first year of life.
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2021 Outstanding Young Investigator Award
Dr. Elizabeth Yen, a neonatologist at Tufts Medical Center, has received the 2021 award for Outstanding Young Investigator.
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Dr. Yen Joins MIRI
Dr. Elizabeth Yen, a neonatologist at Tufts Medical Center, has joined as PI. Dr. Yen’s lab conducts non-invasive salivary transcriptomic and brain magnetic imaging studies to understand the impact of the prenatal opioid exposure on the developing brain.

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