In the United States, addictive disorders including substance use disorders and pathological overeating cause an extensive burden in terms of morbidity, mortality, and public health costs, yet treatment strategies are only modestly effective. Better understanding of the biological mechanisms that underlie addictive disorders and increase susceptibility could substantially improve current prevention and intervention efforts. The overarching goal across my line of translational research is to characterize factors that increase risk for addictive disorders. Specifically, I am interested in how early life factors such as period of exposure (e.g., adolescent onset of regular use) or early life stress mediate the neural mechanisms that are associated with addictive disorders, and how genetic risk moderates these effects.