Scripps Research scientists move forward with work to study opioid alternatives

Amidst a nation-wide opioid epidemic, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute are making strides in developing new, non-opioid pain medications. Now a new grant of more than $2 million from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse will allow them to extend this research and follow up on promising data.

The grant, called a Merit Award, is a rare honor in biomedical research and reflects the Principal Investigator's efforts in innovative science. With the new grant, study leader Dale Boger, PhD, Richard and Alice Cramer Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research, and his colleagues can pursue this research for up to ten years.

The scientists are focused on understanding molecules in the brain called fatty acid amides. These molecules are important for how cells signal each other. Past studies with Scripps Research scientists Richard Lerner, MD, and Ben Cravatt, PhD, showed that a fatty acid amide called oleamide is part of how the brain naturally induces sleep. Other fatty acid amides control how the brain responds to pain and inflammation.

In fact, because some fatty acid amides are only released at injury sites, Boger and his colleagues believe they may be promising tools for studying how the body handles pain. They hope the research can provide alternative pain therapies that don’t have the same serious side effects as opioid drugs.

The grant number is 5R37DA015648.

Send comments to: press[at]scripps.edu

boger
Dale Boger, Richard and Alice Cramer Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research (Photo by John Dole)

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Scripps Research scientists move forward with work to study opioid alternatives

Scripps Research scientists move forward with work to study opioid alternatives