Michael Bardo

University Research Professor

Cognitive Neuroscience

Director of Graduate Studies

Contact Information

mbardo@uky.edu

BBSRB, Room 447

859.257.6456

Research Interests

Drug abuse
Neuroscience
Medication Development

Affiliations

Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuroscience

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Research

I received my Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 1980 at Iowa State University under the supervision of Dr. Richard Hughes. My dissertation investigated the development of tolerance to morphine in infant rats. From 1980-82, I worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Iowa under the supervision of Dr. Gerald Gebhart. Since 1982, I have been in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky. I have worked in the field of neuropsychopharmacology and drug abuse for over 40 years, having been funded continuously by NIH since 1985 and publishing over 250 research articles. My research interests are investigating the neurobehavioral effects of environmental enrichment and social influences on drug self-administration. I am also are interested in medication development for substance use disorders. In addition to behavioral processes, our laboratory conducts neuroscience work using chemogenetics and immunohistochemsitry. Trainees in our laboratory also have collaborative opportunities to learn electrophysiology, fiber photomertry, calcium imaging and genomics.

Graduate Training

Ph.D. Iowa State Univ., 1980

Selected Publications

Selected Publications:

Vu, L., Luo, D. Johnson, K., Denehy, E., Songrady, J., Martin, J., Trivedi, R., Alsum, A., Shaykin, J., Chaudhary, C., Woloshin, E., Kornberger, L., Bhuiyan, N., Parkin, S., Jiang, Q., Che, T., Alilain, W., Turner, J., Bardo, M. and Prisinzano, T. (2024). Searching for synthetic opioid rescue agents: identification of a potent opioid agonist with reduced respiratory depression. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 67, 9173-9193. [PMCID: PMC12054644] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c00333

Humburg, B. A. and Bardo, M. T. (2025). Renewal of cocaine seeking using social and nonsocial contextual stimuli. Psychopharmacology,242, 945-953. [PMCID: PMC10806405]. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37391496/

Malone, S. G., Bardo, M. T., Keller, P. S. and Ortinski, P. I. (2025). Calcium imaging of central amygdala activity after escalation of fentanyl self-administration. Neuropharmacology, 271, 110370. [PMCID: PMC11930605]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028390825000760?via%3Dihub

Bardo, M. T., Charnigo, R. J., Shaykin, J. D., Malone, S. G., Ortinski, P. I. and Turner, J. R. (2025). Modeling escalation of drug intake to identify molecular targets for treating substance use disorders: a slippery slope upward. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 174, 106175. [PMCID: PMC12119212]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106175

Blanchard, M. L., Humburg, B. A. and Bardo, M. T. (2026). Social context in renewal of cocaine and fentanyl seeking: role of peer presence versus peer absence. Psychopharmacology,Feb 27:10.1007/s00213-026-07032-9. [PMCID: PMC13063676].