Lab News

Evan O’Brien, assistant professor in the Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins Medicine, recently received a DP1 Avenir Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This award is one of the agency’s most prestigious early-stage investigator grants, recognizing exceptionally innovative science.

O’Brien’s lab investigates the primary target of opioid pain relief, the mu opioid receptor, which contributes to the devastating opioid overdose epidemic.

This receptor, which helps manage pain, also regulates reward and addiction pathways.

O’Brien’s work aims to generate new tools and systems to investigate “intermediate” structures of the mu opioid receptor, which have remained elusive until now. A surprising discovery is at the center of this work: “natural” ligands not previously thought to be involved in opioid signaling can interact with and alter signaling of the opioid receptor (graphically described in the image above).

O’Brien says he intends to use advanced structural and biophysical techniques to capture never-before-seen views of how these molecules may interact with and change the behavior of the opioid receptor.

“This crosstalk will hopefully serve as the foundation of next-gen, targeted therapies for overdose and pain inspired by nature’s own mechanisms for regulating opioid signaling,” he says.

Congratulations on your award, Evan!