Increasing the levels of chemicals naturally produced in the body called endocannabinoids may thwart the highly addictive nature of opioids such as morphine and oxycodone while maintaining the drugs’ ability to relieve pain, according to a new preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.
More than 160 faculty and students filled Uris Auditorium Dec. 5 to hear doctoral candidates deliver bite-size presentations of their research in an entertaining way. The catch? They had to deliver their work in three minutes or less.
A common variation in a human gene that affects the brain’s reward processing circuit increases vulnerability to the rewarding effects of the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis in adolescent females, but not males.
Dr. Anjali Rajadhyaksha knows the effects of drug addiction, having lost a neighbor to the disease. Now a neuroscientist, she and her team hope to develop therapies to help those most vulnerable to dependence.
A calcium-dependent molecular mechanism discovered in the brain cells of mice by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators may underlie the impaired social interactions and anxiety found in neuropsychiatric disorders — including schizophrenia and autism.
