New Rutgers research center will focus on combatting opioid epidemic, addiction issues

The Rutgers Brain Health Institute has developed a plan for a new Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RuARC) that will work toward handling the national opioid epidemic and broader issues of addiction.

Specifically, the Center plans to develop collaborations between scientists with multidisciplinary proficiencies so that they can work together on studying addiction and related disorders, according to an article from Rutgers Today. It will operate with the goal of advancing knowledge regarding the factors that lead to opioid addiction.

Danielle Dick, inaugural director of RuARC, said the Center’s mission is to reduce the burden of addiction and improve the lives of people who may face a substance use disorder.

This includes translating research into more effective prevention, intervention, treatment and policy, as well as broadening the horizons of future researchers and engaging the public through research findings, she said.

Dick said that one of the Center’s first actions will be to create a website that will provide information regarding news, grants, research findings and seminars that will be updated frequently.

“We will create a Listserv of faculty who have interest in being involved with the Center, and we will start an ‘Ask Anything’ seminar series to allow researchers who work in different disciplines to get to know one another,” she said. “We plan to launch a pilot grant program to help seed new interdisciplinary collaborations and projects, and we will start a series of workgroups to create new interdisciplinary projects and grants.”

Since the University and its associated health facilities are large and widespread throughout the state, Dick said it can be difficult for individuals to know what is being done at the school. The Center aims to combat this issue as a virtual center for addiction researchers, she said.

Despite not being housed in a physical building, the Center will still bring individuals from different physical locations together effectively, she said. By remaining largely virtual, RuARC will also promote the involvement of faculty and students who may not be able to access in-person resources, she said.

Dick said that RuARC's work to address the opioid epidemic comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated that deaths from opioid overdoses increased by nearly 30 percent from 2020 to 2021.

She said the Center will place more of a focus on addiction in general as deaths caused by alcohol and tobacco also constitute a significant health burden. From 2020 to 2021, cigarette smoking was responsible for nearly 500,000 deaths, with alcohol contributing to another 100,000 deaths, in addition to other injuries and associated harm, she said.

“The research is clear that anytime there is decreased stigma and increased availability of a drug, it will lead to increased problems and public health burden,” Dick said. “In addition to substance problems, there are many behavioral addictions that are on the rise, such as problems with social media and gaming. So while the opioid epidemic is concerning, we really need to focus on addiction more broadly. That’s what the Center plans to do.”

Gary Aston-Jones, director of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute, also said that the vision of the Center goes beyond solely addressing the opioid epidemic and that its overall goal is to tackle the worldwide issue of substance use disorders. 

“I think we could say where (the Center) also will have interest in tackling other disorders of motivation,” he said. “I think it could also be relevant to problems of gambling … perhaps eating disorders and perhaps other disorders of motivation because we think brain circuitry involved in substance-use disorder shares common circuitry with disorders of gambling and eating disorders.”

Dick said that the Center is currently aiming to extend research across the translational spectrum, covering four main topics: prevention and intervention, treatment and recovery, basic science and public policy.

Basic science will include neuroscience, genetics, epidemiological and psychological research on risk and protective factors, she said.

Regarding the Center’s plans for local outreach to the New Brunswick community, Dick said she plans to hire a communications coordinator who will work to develop public outreach initiatives. This will include a strong media presence that will help researchers become educated on the needs of the local community and learn how the Center can address those needs.

Aston-Jones said he hopes that the Center will collaborate with other schools within the University and eventually extend to policy formation.

“Rutgers has a lot of strengths in the basic neuroscience of addiction,” he said. “We've also got a lot of strength in clinical treatment of addiction, and this center will help bridge that gap and develop new therapeutics.”