News, Updates, and Upcoming Events

  • Research Scientist Appreciation Day

    Ou lab joined the Department of Neurobiology’s Research Scientist Appreciation Day to celebrate the contributions Cassie, Bridget and Star make to the lab.

  • 2024 Solar Eclipse Watch

    We all wore snazzy glasses to watch the 2024 Solar Eclipse safely (04-08-2024).

  • Isaiah joins the lab as a graduate student!

    We are excited to have Isaiah Williamson join the Juarez lab as a PhD student i te Program in Neurosciene. Find out more about Isaiah here

  • Krystal joins the lab as a graduate student!

    We are excited to have Krystal Flores-Felix join the Juarez lab as a PhD student in the Program in Neuroscience. Find out more about Krystal here.

  • Juarez Lab Fall 2023 Retreat to the Maryland Zoo

    The Juarez lab enjoyed a beautiful Baltimore fall day at the Maryland Zoo and Union Craft Brewing. Find out about our favorite animals here.

  • Cure Addiction Now Symposium and Forum Fall 2023

    Barbara spoke on the Cure Addiction Now Forum and Webinar. Follow the link here to watch the whole series.

  • Barbara is awarded the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award

    08/17/2023: Dr. Barbara Juarez was awarded the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award, which will investigate how parabrachial neurons contribute to negative emotional states of opioid withdrawal.

  • Barbara presents at the GRC Catecholamines

    08/14/2023: Dr. Barbara Juarez presented her work “Ion Channel Regulation of Dopaminergic Neurophysiology and Behavior” during the Molecular Pharmacology and Signaling in Catecholamine Systems panel in Barcelona, Spain.

  • Barbara attends the CURA-MINDS conference

    06/24/2023: Dr. Barbara Juarez was selected as a NIDA CURA fellow, a program that works to facilitate the success of underrepresented early career scientists.

  • Welcome Star Fernandez to The Juarez Lab!

    06/20/2023: Star started in The Juarez Lab at the University of Maryland-Baltimore as a research technician in June 2023. Find out more about Star and her interests here

  • The Juarez Lab attends the 2023 Kappa Therapeutics Conference in Bethesda, MD

    03/30/2023: Bridget and Barbara attended “KappaCon”, a forum that brings together academic and pharmaceutical scientists working on all aspects of kappa opioid research.

  • Welcome Bridget Asare-Owusu to The Juarez Lab!

    03/13/2023: Bridget started in The Juarez Lab at the University of Maryland-Baltimore as a research fellow in March 2023. Find out more about Bridget and her interests here

Future Meetings and Seminars

  • Members of the Juarez lab will be at INRC presenting posters in Ann Arbor, MI! Krystal Flores-Felix will be presenting her work, “Effects of fentanyl on VTA dopamine neurons and in opioid associative learning using conditioned place preference in mice “ and Isaiah Williamson will be presenting his work “Profiling cFos activation in the parabrachial nucleus after naloxone precipitated withdrawal in morphine-dependent mice“. Find out more about the meeting here.

Past Meetings and Seminars

  • Barbara helped co-organize the next IDARS conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Find out more about the exciting schedule here.

  • Barbara visited Penn State College of Medicine to present the lab’s work: “Mechanisms of dopamine neuron activity regulation for reward processing”.

  • Barbara attended the Cure Addiction Now Foundation’s Spring Symposium and For min Los Angeles, California. Find out more here: https://cureaddictionnow.org/forum/

  • Barbara talked about her scientific journey as an underrepresented minority and her lab’s work “Determining the neural circuit basis of opioid use disorders” as part of the Perspectives n Neuroscience Seminar Series and theSeminar Outreach for Minority Advocacy (SOMA) Seminar Series

  • Barbara described her lab’s work on “Determining the neural circuit basis of opioid use disorders”.

  • Barbara gave a talk on the ab’s work, “Determining the neural circuit basis of opioid use disorders”

  • Barbara presented a poster on the lab’s work “Dissecting Ventral Midbrain Dopamine Neuron Heterogeneity to Opioid Reward”.

  • Barbara presented about CRISPR strategies to investigate neural circuit function as part of the SfN minisymposium “Current Status and Future Strategies for Advancing Functional Circuit Mapping In Vivo”.

  • Barbara presented her work at the Neuroscience Seminar Series at Michigan State University.

  • Barbara will be presenting her findings during the Cure Addiction Now Fall Symposium and speaking on the Forum. Find out more about the goals of this foundation here.

  • Barbara presented her work on ion channel regulation of cellular excitability and reinforcement learning at the GRC Catecholamines meeting in Barcelona, Spain.

  • Barbara presented her work, “Dissecting physiology and function of the parabrachial nucleus during opioid withdrawal“ at the Annual INRC meeting in Atlanta, GA.

  • Barbara presented her work, “Gene-editing Approaches to Understand Neurophysiological Function and Behavior ” at UMB’s NAPPS series.

  • Barbara was selected to present her research “Determining Parabrachial Nucleus Physiology and Function During Naloxone-Precipitated Opioid Withdrawal” at ACNP. Find out more about the meeting here: ACNP Annual Meeting 2022

    This work was funded by the Cure Addiction Now Young Investigator Award.

  • Barbara presented a poster, “Dissecting opioid-sensitivity of ventral tegmental area dopamine subpopulations “, at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, CA. Find out more about the meeting here: Society for Neuroscience Meeting 2022

  • Barbara spoke at the Gordon Research Conference on Alcohol and the Nervous System in the Panel on “Gene-editing Approaches to Understand Neuronal and Circuit Function.” Find out more here: Neurobiology of Alcohol Use Disorder and CNS Comorbidities

  • Barbara spoke in a panel about her research on how subpopulations of midbrain dopamine neurons respond to opioids “VTA dopamine neuron heterogeneity and morphine”. Find out more here: IDARS 2022 Meeting

  • Barbara will be presented her current findings “Resolving the complexity of dopamine-mediated behaviors and activity states” for the Mount Sinai Neuroscience Seminar Postdoctoral Seminar Series in New York City.

  • Barbara presented a poster and talk entitled “Leveraging CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technologies to determine the regulators of dopamine physiology and behavior“ at the Dopamine Society conference in Montreal.