People

Dr. Jessica Childs (Principal Investigator) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. She completed her Ph.D. in Cognition and Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she conducted research in Dr. Sven Kroener’s Cellular and Synaptic Physiology Lab. Her thesis focused on the use of vagus never stimulation to facilitate extinction from drug-seeking.

Dr. Childs completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, Irvine in Dr. Marcelo Wood’s lab where her research integrated mouse models of substance use disorder with circuit-specific manipulations, molecular profiling, and advanced genomic approaches to understand relapse vulnerability. In particular, her work focused on the medial habenula as a critical but understudied hub regulating relapse to drug-seeking behavior.

At Marshall University, the Childs Lab investigates how cell-type-specific genetic and epigenetic mechanisms within medial habenula circuits contribute to relapse and neuropsychiatric disease risk. Dr. Childs’ program combines operant behavior, fiber photometry, viral gene expression strategies, and transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling to identify mechanistic targets for intervention in substance use and stress-related disorders.

In her free time, Dr. Childs enjoys backpacking, traveling, cooking, reading fantasy novels, and West Coast swing dancing.