Wayne State University faculty member Shane Perrine, Ph.D., is garnering praise as a mentor with the National Institute on Drug Abuse Summer Research Internship Program. NIDA interviewed Dr.

Perrine, an associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at the School of Medicine, in a video published on NIDA’s YouTube Channel.

In that video, he describes his experience as a program mentor and explains the importance of applying for the internship. View the video.

The video focuses on intern Jamaine Atkins, who studied with Dr. Perrine in the summer of 2018. Atkins, an Eastern Michigan University graduate, and other Perrine Lab team members, explored the behavioral and neurobiological similarities and differences that cocaine has on females and males.

“We were able to not only have a postdoctoral fellow in the lab mentor him, but we had some summer students who were high school students, and he was able to mentor them,” Dr. Perrine said. “He was able to really connect with those Detroit-based underrepresented students, which was awesome.”

Dr. Perrine leads a group of preclinical researchers who seek to better understand the neuronal circuitry and molecular mechanisms that underlie substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and their co-occurrence. His laboratory is funded by NIDA to study the epigenetic effects of cocaine and by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to study co-occurring alcohol and traumatic stress exposure. The research aligns with NIDA’s mission to advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction, and to apply that knowledge to improve individual and public health. NIDA accomplishes this goal through a variety of pathways, including the Summer Research Internship Program.

The NIDA Summer Research Internship Program is designed to support the development of under-represented populations in drug abuse research. For more information, visit www.drugabuse.gov.