Biography
Calipari received her PhD in Neuroscience in 2013 in the laboratory of Sara Jones at Wake Forest University School of Medicine where she studied how self-administered drugs altered dopaminergic function to drive addictive behaviors. She then went on to complete her postdoctoral training with Eric Nestler at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she used circuit probing techniques to understand the temporally specific neural signals that underlie motivation and reward learning. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Pharmacology. Her independent work seeks to characterize and modulate the precise circuits in the brain that underlie both adaptive and maladaptive processes in reward, motivation, and associative learning.Media Appearances
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Geoff Harris breaks down a new report on online gambling.
October 25th, 2024
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Erin Calipari comes from a basketball family. Her father, John Calipari, has coached college and professional basketball since 1998, leading six teams to the NCAA Final Four, and her brother coaches men鈥檚 basketball at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she now works. But when she joined her college team as an undergraduate, she realized her strengths lay elsewhere. 鈥淚 was fine. I wasn鈥檛 great,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t was pretty clear to me a couple years in that it was not a career path.鈥
December 7th, 2023
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The social media lawsuits are far from perfect parallels to the tobacco litigation. First, social media users do not experience physical withdrawal in absence of the platforms, says Erin Calipari, the Associate Director of Vanderbilt University鈥檚 Center for Addiction Research. This will make it harder for the attorneys general to argue that social media is an addiction akin to drugs or tobacco ones. What鈥檚 more, Calipari notes that social media has some benefits, such as helping people foster connections with others and to communicate with people around the world. 鈥淭he question is, how do you balance that with the potential risk?鈥 she asks.
October 26th, 2023
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Erin Calipari, Ph.D., a professor and addiction specialist at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, also has concerns that a reduction in nicotine levels will lead to tobacco users smoking more. 鈥淔rom the research that I do that looks at the factors that influence reinforcement behavior鈥攖he probability of doing something over and over again鈥攚hen you cut the dose in half with drugs, individuals will do whatever they鈥檙e doing to get twice as much,鈥 she says.
June 22nd, 2022
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On today's MorningLine, we talk addiction but from a different perspective - how the brain gets addicted. Dr. Erin Calipari, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt, joins us to explain how addiction work and the many ways it will affect our brain.
April 26th, 2022
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While plenty of people were throwing around the terms "addicted" and "addiction" when talking about the social media platforms, it's tricky to actually call regular social media usage an "addiction," Erin Calipari, a professor and addiction specialist at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. Still, she says, some people definitely display "addictive behaviors" when it comes to using these platforms 鈥 and there's a reason for that.
October 5th, 2021
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鈥淭he findings point to a complex problem facing the addiction field: many people suffer from multiple addictions that are occurring at the same time and treating these co-occurring addictions may be different and more difficult than treating either addiction alone,鈥 Erin Calipari, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, tells Verywell. 鈥淭hese findings are really important for clinicians that are treating individuals with substance use disorders.鈥
July 1st, 2021
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Now, new research from Vanderbilt University shows not only are more people drinking alcohol and abusing other drugs during the pandemic, but that this increase could create new addicts as well. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e seeing an increase in drinking, in drug use in people at home. When the pandemic鈥檚 over, this isn鈥檛 going to go away," said Erin Calipari, Ph.D., with the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research.
December 4th, 2020
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Stress from job losses can push some to drug use or knock recovering addicts off the path to sobriety, said Erin Calipari, principal investigator at the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research. 鈥淲hen you start looking at data across the country, you see there鈥檚 a massive spike in overdoses,鈥 Calipari said. 鈥淭his is above and beyond what we saw with the opioid epidemic. It鈥檚 getting much, much worse.鈥
August 31st, 2020
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Erin Calipari, an assistant professor of pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, says it鈥檚 important to cut down on harmful byproducts of smoking, but it鈥檚 also important to remember that nicotine is an addictive drug on its own, and is not without risks. 鈥淣icotine is a stimulant. Stimulants have effects on the brain, and they have cardiovascular effects as well,鈥 Calipari says. 鈥淲e make a huge deal about the tar and the byproducts in cigarettes, but the drug addiction is incredibly important as well. Just because this minimizes other aversive outcomes doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 safe.鈥
May 1st, 2019
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Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari loves his older daughter, her homemade spaghetti and her pursuit of life-changing science. And he was really looking forward to seeing her when she traveled to the University of Kentucky campus last month to give a presentation about her addiction research.
March 15th, 2019
Multimedia
VIDEO
Jason Isbell: Songs and Sobriety
VIDEO
The Intersection of Incarceration and Addiction: A Conversation for Women Touched by Addiction Day
VIDEO
Ask an Expert: What effect has the pandemic had on the opioid crisis?
VIDEO
Women鈥檚 hormones play role in drug addiction, higher relapse rates
VIDEO
Immune System Shows Promise in Fight Against Opioid Cravings
VIDEO
Erin Calipari Research Overview 鈥 Addiction
Education
Postdoctoral Training, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ph.D, Wake Forest School of Medicine
B.S., University of Massachusetts, Amherst
B.S., University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Additional Resources
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