Julie A. Marusich

Julie Marusich, Ph.D., is a behavioral pharmacologist with over 15 years of experience who supervises preclinical in vivo pharmacological research. Dr. Marusich focuses on the behavioral mechanisms underlying substance use disorders and other psychiatric disorders, and on the development of candidate medications for treatment of these disorders. Her primary areas of expertise and research interest include behavioral pharmacology, cannabinoid pharmacology, stimulant pharmacology, animal models of substance use disorders and other psychiatric disorders, and effects of psychoactive drugs on locomotor behavior and food-maintained operant behavior.

Dr. Marusich has been researching abuse liability of cannabinoids and stimulants for several years. She also has extensive experience working with multiple drugs of abuse in a preclinical setting, including cannabinoids, stimulants, nicotine, psychedelics, opioids, and benzodiazepines. She utilizes an assortment of behavioral assays in her research including drug discrimination, drug self-administration, and the cannabinoid tetrad.

Dr. Marusich has published a number of peer-reviewed journal articles, and has presented at a variety of scientific meetings including the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, the Society for Neuroscience, and the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.