Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology · UTMB

TG Laboratory

Understanding addiction through frustration, resilience, and molecular neuroscience.

Research Focus

Frustration in Neuropsychiatric Conditions

A fourth factor in substance use disorders

People with substance use disorders show heightened susceptibility to frustration — the emotional response when expected rewards are not received. We pioneered a method to measure ...

Environmental Enrichment & Protective Phenotypes

Inoculation stress hypothesis

Positive environmental stimuli — novelty, social contact, and exercise — produce a protective phenotype that renders some individuals resistant to addiction or depression, even aft...

Retinoic Acid Signaling in Addiction

Novel therapeutic strategies

Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of nucleus accumbens tissue revealed that retinoic acid signaling is altered in environmentally enriched animals that display protective pheno...

Latest News

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Publication·2026-01

New paper on retinoic acid depletion and fentanyl self-administration

Our latest study shows that depleting retinoic acid synthesis in the nucleus accumbens shell produces a protective phenotype for emotional reactivity and drug-taking in rats.

Grant·2024-04

New NIDA R-series grant: Frustration effects on drug taking

Awarded new funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to investigate frustration effects on drug-taking behavior (2024–2029).

Publication·2024-10

New paper on frustration and fentanyl in enriched vs. isolated rats

Wunsch, Hwang, Funke et al. publish in Psychopharmacology examining frustration-related behavior and fentanyl self-administration.

Press·2021-03

Frustration research featured in national press

Our study identifying frustration as a fourth factor in addiction was covered by ScienceDaily, Neuroscience News, News-Medical.net, and UTMB News.