11th Annual Retreat: Center for Genetics, Genomics, and Epigenetics of Substance Use Disorders in Outbred Rats

Thursday, November 20, 2025

UC San Diego
3147 Biomedical Sciences Wy.
La Jolla, CA 92093

See address note [jump to map]

Israni Biomedical Research Facility (“BRF-2”)

  • Breakfast reception, presentations, and research posters:
    Floor 5A, Room 5A03 and balcony
  • Lunch:
    Floor 1, Room 1104 and lobby seating (and adjoining patios, weather permitting)

Retreat hosts:

Abraham Palmer, PhD – aap@ucsd.edu

Oksana Polesskaya, PhD – opolesskaya@ucsd.edu

April Jones – akjones@ucsd.edu (on-site and remote event support on 11/20/25)

Agenda

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Pacific Time

[click here for mobile-version agenda]

8:30 – 9:00am
Breakfast Reception /check-in
Floor 5A, Room 5A03 and balcony

Welcome reception and continental breakfast, RATTACA gear, and lanyard name badges

9:00am – 5:00pm, PT
Meeting, Presentations, Posters

9:00 – 10:15am
Session 1
Overview of P30 Center and Service Cores
Floor 5A, Room 5A03

  • Abraham Palmer, PhD (University of California San Diego)
    • NIDA Center for Genetics, Genomics, and Epigenetics of Substance Use Disorders in Outbred Rats (P30DA060810)
    • P30 Overview: Core A (administrative), Core B (HS West and RATTACA), Core C (genotyping), and Core D (pilot projects, REHU program)
  • Leah Solberg Woods, PhD (Wake Forest University)
    • Core B updates (HS rat breeding colony)
  • Pejman Mohammadi, PhD (University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Research Institute)
    • Core C updates (transcriptomics)

10:15 – 10:45am
Break

Refreshments in 5A03 and restrooms available nearby on Floor 5.

10:45 – 11:15am
Session 2
Related Center Proposals
Floor 5A, Room 5A03

  • Olivier George, PhD (University of California San Diego)
    • “Building PARC and Mapping Polysubstance Addiction: One Individual at a Time”
  • Laura Saba, PhD (University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus)
    • “The NIDA Core Center of Omics, Systems Genetics, and the Addictome (past and future)”

11:15am – 12:15pm
Research Posters
Floor 5A, Room 5A03 and balcony

  • “Come See My Poster” preview talks in 5A03
  • Research Poster Gallery on Floor 5A balcony

12:15 – 1:15pm
Lunch
Floor 1, Room 1104 and adjoining patio

Research Poster Gallery
Floor 5A balcony

12:15 – 1:15pm – concurrently
External Advisory Board (EAB) – hybrid meeting
Floor 3A, Room 3A04 (and via Zoom)

The EAB Meeting will be held in person (BRF-2, Room 3A04) and remotely via a private Zoom invitation. (Lunch will be provided to EAB members in Room 3A04.)

Look for the EAB Meeting Zoom email/invitation: “HS Rats/P30 – External Advisory Board meeting [hybrid]” – please email April Jones (akjones@ucsd.edu) if you have any issues.

1:15 – 2:15pm
Session 3
Behavior and Results 
Floor 5A, Room 5A03

  • Hao Chen, PhD (University of Tennessee Health Science Center)
    • “Socially-acquired nicotine self-administration in HS rats: moving from GWAS to molecular and circuit mechanisms”
  • Paul Meyer, PhD (University at Buffalo)
    • “Genetic influences on cocaine motivation and other addiction-related traits”
  • Giordano de Guglielmo, PharmD, PhD (University of California San Diego)
    • “Multidimensional Profiling of Alcohol, Opioid, and Polydrug Use in Heterogeneous Stock Rats”

2:15 – 2:45pm
Break

Refreshments in 5A03 and restrooms available nearby on Floor 5.

2:45 – 3:45pm
Session 4
Methods
Floor 5A, Room 5A03

  • Haoyu Cheng, PhD (Yale University)
    • “Telomere-to-Telomere, high-quality assemblies for rat pangenome”
  • David Kastner, MD, PhD (University of California San Francisco)
    • “Data-driven identification of axes of variability for behavior”
  • Thomas Willis, PhD (Seattle Children’s Research Institute)
    • “Sifting rats: leveraging pleiotropy to boost the power of genetic association studies”
  • Hae Kyung Im, PhD (University of Chicago)
    • “Transferring polygenic knowledge across species”

3:45 – 4:00pm
Short Break

Refreshments in 5A03 and restrooms available nearby on Floor 5.

4:00 – 5:00pm
General Discussion
Floor 5A, Room 5A03

Discussion and retreat closing.

5:00 – 6:00pm
Personal transportation to Dr. Palmer’s home

Directions will be provided week of 11/17/25. See dinner RSVP email: “11/20: 11th Annual HS Rats Retreat! DINNER“

Please email April Jones (akjones@ucsd.edu) if you have any issues.

6:00 – 8:30pm
Dinner at Dr. Palmer’s home

UC San Diego campus map

UC San Diego address note: do not use the main campus address (9500 Gilman Dr.) when mapping/using rideshare apps—it will not lead you to the BRF-2 building.
You must use the BRF-2 address:

Israni Biomedical Research Facility/”BRF-2″: 
3147 Biomedical Sciences Wy., La Jolla, CA 92093

Visitor Parking (V spaces) available at the South Parking Structure and the Gilman Parking Structure. Please use the Park Mobile app or a payment station inside the structures.

  • South Parking Structure: 3101 Biomedical Sciences Wy., La Jolla, CA 92093
  • Gilman Parking Structure: 9375 Russell Ln., La Jolla, CA 92093

Updated: