Patricia "Sue" Grigson-Kennedy, MS, PhD

Dr. Sue Grigson is professor and chair of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics and director of Penn State Addiction Center for Translation (PS-ACT). Grigson’s role is to supervise the Journal Club sponsored by PS-ACT and provide input to fellows about scholarly activities. In the laboratory, she has gained decades of experience studying intake, learning, memory and motivation for natural rewards using rodent models. She has used this base to examine how drugs of abuse commandeer these natural learning, memory and motivational systems to take control of behavior. Grigson is the principal investigator (PI) on a MERIT Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study these individual differences in cocaine addiction, and is the principal investigator (PI) on an R21 grant to test whether random delivery of nicotine can facilitate smoking cessation in humans. She also was the PI on a multi-investigator grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health to study these individual differences in opiate addiction from genes to behavior in her rodent model. Grigson is PI on a second multi-investigator grant that has been submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Health to study interventions that will improve treatment and outcomes for patients with an opioid use disorder. She has mentored eight students and two postdoctoral fellows in successful National Research Service Awards from NIDA and has published more than 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Grigson has given talks around the country and the world on her research, serves as chair of PS-ACT’s annual Addiction Dinner and Symposium and participated in the Mini-Medical School to educate the public on the disease of addiction and its treatment.