Dr Tristan Hynes, PhD
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Dr Hynes is a behavioural neuroscientist who studies why some brains are more vulnerable to addiction than others. His research explores how motivation, learning, and brain chemistry interact to drive the emergence and persistence of addiction
By uncovering how neurobiology and biological sex contribute to addiction, Dr. Hynes aims to change how we understand the disorder. His work reframes addiction as a condition rooted in learning and biology rather than willpower. He connects fundamental discoveries about brain function with the urgent need for more effective and personalised treatments for addiction.
Before joining Simon Fraser University, Dr. Hynes was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge, where he worked with Professor David Belin to reveal new roles for astrocytes in shaping the neurochemical pathways that underlie compulsive opioid seeking. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of British Columbia with Professor Catharine Winstanley, where he investigated how dopamine and reward cues influence risky decision-making.
Dr. Hynes’s long-term goal is to advance a science of addiction that accounts for individual differences in biology, psychology, and social experience, paving the way toward more precise and compassionate approaches to prevention and treatment.
Our Research
At the Hynes Lab, we study how the brain learns to associate cues, rewards, and actions to understand how learning goes awry in addiction. Our research explores the dynamic interplay between dopamine and acetylcholine systems, the astrocytic networks that regulate them, and the sex-specific neural adaptations that drive vulnerability to substance use and gambling disorder.
Using cutting-edge tools like dual-colour fibre photometry, chemogenetics, optogenetics, and spatial transcriptomics, we dissect how dopamine–acetylcholine–astrocyte interactions shape associative learning, motivation, and habit formation.
By integrating real-time circuit imaging with single-cell molecular mapping, we aim to reveal how drugs and reward-related cues hijack these systems to promote maladaptive learning. Through this approach, we seek to redefine the cellular dogma of addiction and identify new therapeutic targets that restore balance between dopamine, acetylcholine, and astrocytic regulation of behaviour.