Dr. Dylan Kirsch is a postdoctoral fellow in the UCLA Addictions Laboratory and a clinical neuroscientist with training in the translational neuroscience of addiction. Her research integrates neuroimaging and experimental human laboratory models to investigate the interplay between substance use and mood. As a neuroscience graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, Dylan was awarded an NIAAA F31 fellowship to study the neural mechanisms underlying the elevated risk for alcohol use and disorders in young adults with bipolar disorder. In 2023, she joined UCLA as a postdoctoral fellow in the Translational Neuroscience on Drug Abuse T32 Training Program. Following the completion of her T32 fellowship, she was awarded an NIAAA F32 fellowship to study how acute, chronic, and early life stress influence the clinical course of alcohol use disorder. Dylan is currently receiving training in medication development for addiction through her Tobacco Related Disease Research Program fellowship. Support from the Friends of Semel award will enable her to expand her research by investigating the effects of cytisinicline—a novel and efficacious smoking cessation medication—on brain processes underlying negative affect, using functional neuroimaging and experimental pharmacology. This study will generate the first data on cytisinicline’s impact on the human brain, advancing our understanding of its potential mechanisms in addiction treatment.