Angela M. Carter, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology, was selected to chair a minisymposium at Neuroscience 2025, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) and the largest international gathering of neuroscientists. The meeting was held from November 15 to 19 at the San Diego Convention Center and brought together researchers from around the world to share advances in brain science.
Carter’s minisymposium, titled “How Do They Do It? Mechanisms Driving Microbial Regulation of Addictive Behaviors,” examined emerging evidence linking the microbiome to brain function and substance use disorders. The session focused on mechanistic studies exploring how microbial composition, host genetics, and microbial metabolites influence neural signaling and addiction-related behaviors.
The minisymposium was composed of a multidisciplinary group of investigators from institutions across the United States, including Rutgers University, the University of Maryland, The Jackson Laboratory, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Harvard Medical School. Speakers represented a range of career stages, from postdoctoral fellows to senior scientists.
“This session brought together complementary approaches to address how microbes influence brain function in the context of addiction,” Carter said. “By focusing on mechanisms rather than associations, we aimed to provide a clearer framework for understanding how changes in the microbiome can directly alter behavior.”
Programming focused on the microbiome has been limited at recent SfN meetings, making the selection of this minisymposium notable. The work presented in the session has potential clinical relevance, as the microbiome represents a modifiable system outside the blood-brain barrier that may inform future biomarkers and therapeutic strategies for substance use disorders.
About Neuroscience 2025
Neuroscience 2025 is the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, the world’s largest organization of scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the brain and nervous system. The meeting brings together more than 30,000 researchers, clinicians, educators and trainees from around the world to share discoveries spanning basic, translational and clinical neuroscience.