Rewriting Addiction: The Science and Persistence of Angela Gonzalez

Angela and her siblings on a Ski Trip at Mount Hood, Oregon

“I grew up very religious,” neuroscientist Angela Gonzalez says. “I was told that science wasn’t real.”

But even as a child, they felt drawn toward it.

When Gonzalez reflects on how she became a scientist, she doesn’t start with a lab or a research paper. She starts with rebellion.

That curiosity pushed her toward a path that didn’t always align with expectations. At just 16, she enrolled in college through Washington State’s Running Start program, which allows high school students to take college courses.

“I immediately took all the science classes that I could,” she recalls.

At the time, she still planned to become a physician. But a psychology course, The Biological Basis of Behavior, shifted her trajectory. “I fell in love with neuroscience through that,” she says. “It completely opened my eyes.”

That moment set Gonzalez on a path that would take her from undergraduate research in addiction neuroscience to her current role as a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps Research, where she studies how substances like alcohol alter the brain.

Investigating Addiction in the Brain

Today Gonzalez works in the lab of neuroscientist Dr. Marisa Roberto at Scripps Research in California. The group studies how alcohol alters brain function and the neuroimmune mechanisms that contribute to alcohol use disorder.

Much of Gonzalez’s work focuses on translational neuroscience — research designed to bridge laboratory neuroscience and real-world treatments.

“I’m very interested in research that can have a closer impact on the clinical population,” she explains.

One project explores whether GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class of drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity (including medications like Ozempic and Wegovy) might also reduce alcohol consumption.

“We’re studying how we can use GLP-1 receptor agonists to decrease alcohol consumption in rodent models,” Gonzalez explains. “It’s been pretty cool.”

Their research also examines the role of astrocytes — star-shaped support cells in the brain that help regulate neural signaling. Gonzalez studies how alcohol changes astrocyte morphology — their physical structure — in different brain regions.

“These structural changes can reflect astrocyte reactivity,” she says, a process that has been linked to alcohol dependence.

But many questions remain. “We don’t really know a whole lot about astrocyte morphology at this time,” Gonzalez says. “It’s very new to the field.”

From Cocaine Research to New Treatments

Before coming to Scripps, Gonzalez spent nearly a decade studying addiction neuroscience during her undergraduate and doctoral training, where her work focused primarily on cocaine use disorder. 

“We studied cocaine-associated memories and how they contribute to relapse behavior,” she says.

One major discovery from that work involved structures called perineuronal nets, specialized components of the extracellular matrix that surround certain neurons in the brain. Gonzalez and her colleagues found that breaking down these structures could weaken drug-associated memories and reduce cocaine-seeking behavior in animal models.

Her doctoral research also explored the therapeutic potential of ketamine, a drug already approved for medical use and increasingly studied for depression.

“We saw a reduction in cocaine-seeking behavior in our rats,” she says.

The finding was particularly exciting because ketamine is already used clinically. “Ketamine is an FDA-approved drug,” Gonzalez explains. “It’s not FDA-approved for substance use disorders, but it’s great because we know it’s safe and efficacious in humans.”

That opens the possibility that existing medications could one day be repurposed to help treat addiction.

Rather than focusing on complete abstinence, Gonzalez says the goal of many modern addiction treatments is harm reduction.

“The expectation that people will just stop drug use entirely isn’t always realistic,” she says. “But if we can reduce drug-taking behavior, we can make a huge difference in people’s lives.”

The Future of Addiction Science

Gonzalez believes the field of addiction neuroscience is on the verge of major advances.

“I think that it's going to grow. We're going to have up-and-coming treatments,” she says.

Currently, only a handful of medications are approved to treat conditions like alcohol use disorder, and many have significant drawbacks. Some require strict abstinence, while others produce unpleasant side effects.

“There’s still a lot of room for improvement,” Gonzalez says.

Future treatments may include not only medications but also technologies such as brain stimulation or neurofeedback therapies.

Most importantly, Gonzalez predicts that addiction medicine will increasingly move toward precision medicine, where treatments are tailored to the biology and circumstances of individual patients.

“Not every human is alike,” she says. “Not everyone is going to respond to a drug the same way.” 

Persistence in Science

Gonzalez’s own journey through science has not always been easy. As a first-generation college student and a first-generation Mexican-American scientist, they often felt the pressure of expectations and responsibility.

“I think about the sacrifices my parents made,” she says. “That was always a driver for me to keep going.”

Like many researchers, she has also experienced moments of doubt.

“Imposter syndrome never really goes away,” Gonzalez says. “At every stage, you feel like maybe you don’t belong here.”

But persistence, she says, is essential.

“Science is full of failure. Experiments fail all the time,” she explains. “And you just have to keep trying and keep trying and keep trying.”

That persistence can take many forms, from pushing through difficult experiments to simply allowing yourself time to rest.

“Sometimes persistence means taking a day off and coming back the next day,” she says.

Beyond the Lab

Angela playing rugby during her PhD, representing the Pacific Northwest at a tournament in Dallas, Texas

Outside the lab, Gonzalez brings the same competitive energy she applies to science into sports. She has played both rugby and competitive women’s football and remains active in athletics.

“I’m a very competitive person,” she says with a laugh.

She also enjoys skiing, biking, cooking, and baking. And with twelve siblings, family time remains a central part of her life.

“I have a really big family,” she says. “We’re very close.”

Despite the long hours and demanding pace of scientific research, Gonzalez believes maintaining a life outside the lab is essential.

“Science shouldn’t be your entire identity,” she says. “It’s a part of who you are—not all of who you are.”

For Gonzalez, the ultimate goal of her work remains simple: making a difference.

“When I was younger, I had this big vision of what impact looked like,” she says. “Now I realize it can be much smaller, and just as meaningful.”

“If you change one person’s life,” she adds, “that person might go on to change someone else’s.”