Genetic variation and sex differences are missed opportunities for addiction biology

Though risk for cocaine use disorder is subject to substantial inter-individual variation, the sources of that variation – including, genetics and sex – are too often ignored in studies of this phenomenon. In genetically diverse laboratory mice, these individual differences explain the majority of variance in important cocaine-related behavioral, physiological, and striatum transcriptional responses traits. This individual variation represents a missed opportunity for discovery and translation of addiction mechanisms.