Dr. Nyland’s research focuses on the intersection of pain, stress, and addiction. Her research spans animal models of pain and addiction as well as clinical research focused on pain management and the chronification of pain. Her early research focused on preclinical animal models of reward and addiction, combining behavioral, neurochemical, and neuroanatomical techniques to understand underlying substrates of withdrawal and relapse. She later established an applied pain management laboratory to develop and assess novel analgesics. Her more recent work as a member of the Penn State Addiction Center for Translation (PS ACT) has focused on translational efforts utilizing a GLP-1R agonist to reduce craving and prevent relapse both in animal models and a human pilot study in patients seeking treatment for opioid use disorder. Dr. Nyland is also involved in clinical pain research. Her interests include interdisciplinary pain management approaches and the identification of biomarkers that predict pain chronification and vulnerability to substance use. She has extensive training and experience in human subjects research having led a team of behavioral health investigators with the DoD and later managed a clinical study team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. Dr. Nyland approaches research with a team mindset and the understanding that combined expertise yields better results. Her work has been supported by the NIH, DoD, Pennsylvania Department of Health, American Society of Hematology, and the National Academy of Sciences. She is interested in collaborative efforts that span preclinical and clinical approaches in the fields of pain, addiction, and behavioral health. She has worked with industry, non-profit, and government partners and considers these collaborations outside of academia to be essential to increasing the impact and dissemination of her work.