Dr. Anita Randolph serves as the Director of the Community Engagement and Education Core for the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain. She produces valuable scientific research while simultaneously representing the MIDB to local communities. Her comfortability within both realms is an asset to a research group that must manage a lot of moving parts to be successful.

Researchers from the Wickman Lab are studying how drugs of abuse trigger neuroadaptations within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a key component of the brain's “reward system.” Since behavioral implications of a well-documented adaptation in mPFC still remain unknown, the researchers sought to better understand how it might shape behaviors relevant to addiction.

University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have developed two new rapid diagnostic tests for COVID-19 – one to detect COVID-19 variants and one to help differentiate with other illnesses that have COVID-19-like symptoms. The findings were recently published in the journal Bioengineering.