Our work in the Laboratory for Translational Neuroscience of Dual Diagnosis & Development focuses on exploring causal mechanisms in the brain responsible for extremely high rates of addictions co-morbidity in mental illness. Because both addictions and mental illnesses are in large part neurodevelopmental disorders in which adolescence is a critical transition phase, we are also interested in how the adolescent brain re-wires normally, or abnormally, in mental illnesses as intertwined with the early stages of drug addictions.