News

2025-26

First Weera Lab publication! Sydney Bonauto*, Olivia Brunke*, Fair Vassoler, Marcus Weera. Predator odor stress produces sex- and subpopulation-specific increases in alcohol drinking, anxiety-like behavior, and lateral hypothalamic Crh expression published in Neuropharmacology. *co-first authors
Sydney Bonauto passed her qualifying examination and advanced to candidacy in the Neuroscience PhD program.
Vera Liao (undergraduate c/o 2026) was awarded a Tufts Summer Scholars grant to perform research in the Weera Lab.
Mason Rauch (undergraduate c/o 2026) presented a poster on his research at the Tufts NeuroNetwork Symposium.

The Weera Lab attended the Research Society on Alcohol meeting in New Orleans, LA. Sydney Bonauto and Olivia Brunke presented posters, and Marcus presented a symposium talk. Sydney Bonauto was supported by a Student Merit award.
The lab welcomed new lab manager and Tufts graduate Alexa Pil (c/o 2025). Excited to work with you Alexa!
Patricia Clemente (undergraduate c/o 2026) received a Tufts Career Center Summer Scholarship to perform research in the Weera Lab.

Marcus gave an invited talk at the Center for Drug Discovery (CDD) Annual Retreat.
Negin Mohammadmirzaei and Marcus attended the Chemistry & Pharmacology of Drug Abuse (CPDA) conference in Boston, MA. Marcus gave an invited talk.

The inaugural New England Addiction Neuroscience meeting was hosted at Brown University. Sydney Bonauto won third place in the lightning talk competition.

The lab welcomed new Psychology PhD students Henrique Vieira and Olivia Brunke. Excited to have such great trainees in the lab!
Henrique Vieira was awarded the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Fellowship. Congrats, Henrique!
Sydney Bonauto was awarded the Dean's Fellowship by the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Congrats, Sydney!

Weera Lab publication! Olivia Brunke*, Sydney Bonauto*, Eli Boshak, Mason Rauch, Marcus Weera. Effects of predator odor stress on alcohol-induced conditioned taste aversion and lateral habenula cFos expression in rats published in Neuropharmacology. *co-first authors

The Weera Lab attended NeuroBoston hosted at Tufts University. Many lab members including Negin Mohammadmirzaei, Olivia Brunke, Sydney Bonauto, and undergraduate Vera Liao (c/o 2026) presented posters and the meeting was a great success!
The Weera Lab attended the inaugural Tufts Neuroengineering Symposium (co-organized by Marcus).

Libby Danielson joined the Weera Lab as a Masters in Biomedical Research student. Welcome Libby!
Marcus attended and presented at the ACNP meeting in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Olivia Brunke and Sydney Bonauto attended the Gordon Research Seminar and Gordon Research Conference on Alcohol and the Nervous System in Ventura, CA.

Olivia Brunke and Henrique Vieira presented their first-year projects to the Department of Psychology at the First Year Conference. Congrats on excellent work Olivia and Henrique!
Sydney Bonauto received the Barbara Talamo award for graduate research in the Neuroscience Program.

Weera Lab publication! Micah Frier, Nicole Biggi, Jessica Babb, Emily Newman, Herb Covington, Marcus Weera. Aggression and repeated alcohol drinking-in-the-dark: dissecting subtypes in outbred mice was published in Psychopharmacology in the special issue honoring late Dr. Klaus Miczek.
Stellar undergraduate researchers Mason Rauch, Eli Boshak, Vera Liao, Diana Nguyen, and Patricia Clemente graduated in the class of 2026! Congratulations all and thank you for your contributions to the lab.
Olivia Brunke and Sydney Bonauto presented at International Congress on Stress and Alcohol in Volterra, Italy supported by travel awards. Sydney was awarded a poster prize. Marcus chaired a symposium dedicated to the study of individual differences in the neurobiology of stress and alcohol.
A special issue honoring the late Dr. Klaus Miczek was published in Psychopharmacology (Guest Editors: Jamie Maguire & Marcus Weera).
Micah Frier co-authored a review in Psychopharmacology entitled Decoding the bidirectional links between alcohol misuse and aggression: toward a unified translational framework. This work was published in collaboration with the Mangieri Lab at University of Texas Austin.
Lab manager Alexa left the Weera Lab to start at the prestigious Postbaccalaureate Premedical program at Bryn Mawr. You’ll be missed Alexa!

Henrique Vieira, Olivia Brunke, and Sydney Bonauto presented posters at Research Society on Alcohol meeting in San Antonio, TX supported by Student Merit travel awards. Marcus delivered a talk as part of a symposium.
Sydney Bonauto was awarded a Doctoral Student Small Grant from the Research Society on Alcohol to support her thesis work.
Danielle Berger (undergraduate c/o 2027) was awarded a Tufts Summer Scholars grant to perform research in the Weera Lab.
Marcus hosted the inaugural Tufts Stress & Addiction Neuroscience Symposium. Negin Mohammadmirzaei, Henrique Vieira, Sydney Bonauto, Libby Danielson, and Olivia Brunke shared their work.

The lab was awarded a new R01 grant (AA033087) titled "Behavioral Neurobiology of Stress, Alcohol Responsivity, and Alcohol Drinking."
The lab attended the Chemistry and Pharmacology of Drug Abuse (CPDA) Conference at Northeastern University. Marcus gave an invited talk and Sydney Bonauto and Olivia Brunke presented posters.