2026 McGovern Institute Symposium
Decoding Addiction: Breaking new ground in research and clinical care
Date: Friday, October 23, 2026
Location: MIT Building 46, Singleton Auditorium (Room 46-3002), 524 Main Street, Cambridge, MA
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. with reception to follow
Format: In person
Admission: Event is free and open to the public. Registration is required
Symposium Overview
This symposium brings together scientists, engineers, clinicians, and emerging researchers whose work advances the understanding and treatment of substance use disorders. Spanning discoveries in humans and animal models, the conference bridges basic research and clinical care, fostering collaborations that result in novel treatment strategies for one of society’s most urgent public health challenges.
Be sure to check this page for the most up-to-date event information.
Symposium Program
12:30 PM – Registration Opens
1:00 PM – Welcome and Introduction – Fan Wang and Alan Jasanoff, McGovern Institute, MIT
1:05 PM – Opening Remarks – Sarah Wakeman, Mass General Brigham
1:15 PM – A. Eden Evins, Mass General Hospital Center for Addiction Medicine
“2026 Update: Recent translational neuroscience findings relevant to addiction”
2:00 PM – Ke Chen, McGovern Institute, MIT
“Dopamine signatures of excessive and compulsive cocaine and fentanyl use”
2:20 PM – Yasaman Bioki, McGovern Institute, MIT
“Orexin, Craving, and Reward: Neuroimaging a novel pharmacotherapy for cannabis use disorder”
2:40 PM – Patricia Janak, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
“Neural circuits for reward evaluation and pursuit”
3:25 PM – Coffee Break
3:45 PM – Wenyu Tu, McGovern Institute, MIT
“Brain-wide Encoding of Reward Variables Revealed by Molecular fMRI“
4:05 PM – Pema Maretich, McGovern Institute, MIT
“Adrenal dynamics shape fentanyl seeking”
4:25 PM – Geoffrey Schoenbaum, National Institute on Drug Abuse
“Effects of drug use on the organization and dimensionality of neural representations of task features in orbitofrontal cortex”
5:10 PM – Closing Remarks by Lore Harp McGovern, Co-Founder, McGovern Institute, MIT
5:15 PM – Reception in the Atrium
Speakers Include
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Patricia Janak, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Departments of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
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Geoffrey Schoenbaum, Distinguished Investigator, Chief, Cellular and Neurocomputational Systems; Branch Chief, Behavioral Neurophysiology Neuroscience Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse
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A. Eden Evins, Director of Center for Addiction Medicine, Mass General Hospital
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Sarah Wakeman, Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder, Mass General Brigham
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Yasaman Bioki, Research Scientist, Gabrieli lab at MIT
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Ke Chen, Postdoctoral Associate, Wang lab at MIT
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Pema Maretich, Postdoctoral Associate, Anikeeva lab at MIT
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Wenyu Tu, Postdoctoral Associate, Jasanoff lab at MIT