Ellen Walker, PhD, Chair and Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Benjamin Blass, PhD, Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Temple University School of Pharmacy faculty members Dr. Benjamin Blass and Dr. Ellen Walker are co-investigators on a new $355,190 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The grant, awarded to Praeventix, Inc., continues the long-standing collaboration between the company and faculty from the Temple Pharmacy’s Moulder Center for Drug Discovery. The award funds a one-year project titled "In Vivo Characterization of 5-HT7 Modulators in Rat Models of Opioid Use Disorder”.
The research will probe the relationship between 5-HT7, a serotonin receptor, and treatment of opioid use disorder. The results of this study will be used to assess the viability of modulation of these pharmacological targets to help prevent relapse and accelerate the recovery of patients suffering with opioid use disorder, a condition with limited treatment options.
The award builds on Temple Pharmacy's growing portfolio of substance use disorder research and its continued contribution to national efforts addressing the opioid crisis.
Research reported was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43DA064569.