Congratulations to Dr. Carrie Ferrario

ASPET is pleased to award Dr. Carrie R. Ferrario from the University of Michigan the 2023 John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology. The Abel Award, named after the founder of ASPET, was established to stimulate fundamental research in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics by young investigators.

Dr. Ferrario is receiving this award in recognition of her groundbreaking studies on the neural mechanisms underlying drug addiction and obesity. 

Dr. Ferrario is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan (UM). She examines the neurobiological mechanisms of food craving and how these processes are influenced by individual susceptibility to obesity. Her studies address neurobehavioral intersections between over-consumption of food and addictive drugs like cocaine. She has made seminal contributions to the field, including identifying phenotypic behavioral and neural differences in brain reward centers in obesity-prone vs obesity-resistant populations. Dr. Ferrario received her PhD in Neuroscience from UM, training with Dr. Terry Robinson. She conducted postdoctoral research with Drs. Marina Wolf, Margaret Gnegy and Les Satin examining addiction, glutamatergic plasticity and the role of glutamate receptors in traumatic brain injury. Her scientific contributions are acknowledged by receipt of a NARSAD Young Investigator Award, an Early Career Independent Investigator Award from ASPET’s Division for Neuropharmacology and the Henry Russel Award from UM, the highest university honor awarded to early career faculty. Dr. Ferrario has been a member of ASPET since 2013. 

The award will be presented at the Awards Lunch on May 21, 2023 during the ASPET 2023 Annual Meeting in St. Louis.  Additionally, Dr. Ferrario has been invited to give a lecture on her work as part of the new online VIP Award Lecture Series in conjunction with the annual meeting.
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headshot of Carrie Ferrario Carrie R Ferrario, PhD

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