Indianapolis – Awards are not easy to come by, especially in the world of academia, but Cherish Ardinger, a graduate student within the addiction neuroscience program at the IUPUI School of Science, is celebrating her latest honor provided by the Research Society on Alcohol.
Ardinger earned the ACER (Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research) Journal award for Early Career Investigator Outstanding Paper for her work, “A Critical Review of Front-loading: A Maladaptive Drinking Pattern Driven by Alcohol's Rewarding Effects.”
The award, earned by two graduate and/or postdoctoral trainees per year, not only distinguishes her work, which is set to be recognized in ACER and at the annual RSA meeting, but also comes with a $500 prize.
“Winning this award is an honor to me because it means my colleagues agree that my work is making an impact,” Ardinger said. “Front-loading has become a central part of my research and something I am passionate about studying. It is gratifying to be recognized for this work through this award.”
Her interest in front-loading piqued when she tackled the matter during her first experiment of graduate school. Front-loading is defined as the act of drinking faster at the start of a drinking session. Ardinger’s research focuses on how this behavior is often driven by the “rewarding” effects of alcohol.
“Though this was not the first study to report rodent alcohol front-loading, seeing the behavior first-hand is what made me personally very interested in understanding what drives front-loading,” Ardinger said. It is a translationally relevant behavior for studying the development of alcohol use disorder.”
In earning the award, she had the help of Dr. Christopher Lapish, Dr. Cristine Czachowski and Dr. Nicholas Grahame, who aided in reviewing her work. Dr. Grahame was the one to nominate the paper for the award.
“I have to thank all of them for being great mentors to me,” she said. “The conversations that we had during the qualifying exam made the final review stronger. I am grateful for their support and guidance as I finish graduate school. I want to especially thank Dr. Grahame for taking the time to nominate me and our review for this award.”
As for her next move, she will not be backing away from front-loading. Ardinger plans to work on the subject for her dissertation.
“I am now thrilled to be working on a study for my dissertation which is aimed at understanding differences in neural activity between animals who front-load versus those who do not display this phenotype,” she said. “It really feels like we are just starting to scratch the surface on this exciting line of work.”