“Semaglutide’s story becomes even more complicated in drug addiction. Addictive drugs such as cocaine and opioids are generally thought to “hijack” the brain’s natural reward pathways, says Heath Schmidt, a neuropharmacologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Over time, the brain … Read More
The high rates of relapse associated with current medications used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) necessitate research that expands our understanding of the neural mechanisms regulating opioid taking to identify molecular substrates that could be targeted by novel pharmacotherapies … Read More
“We’re talking about a class of medications that could have efficacy in treating a variety of addictions: cocaine, opioids, nicotine, alcohol, all different addictive drugs with very different pharmacology,” said Heath Schmidt, a neuroscientist studying addiction at the University of … Read More
Two Schmidt Lab papers were recently cited in The Atlantic article, Did Scientists Accidentally Invent an Addiction Drug? , by Sarah Zhang.
Our recent publication, “Liraglutide attenuates nicotine self-administration as well as nicotine seeking and hyperphagia during withdrawal in male and female rats”, and nicotine work were highlighted in an article by Insider.
Nicotine cessation is associated with increased consumption of highly palatable foods and body weight gain in most smokers. Concerns about body weight gain are a major barrier to maintaining long-term smoking abstinence, and current treatments for nicotine use disorder (NUD) … Read More
Nicotine intake, whether through tobacco smoking or e-cigarettes, remains a global health concern. An emerging preclinical literature indicates that parental nicotine exposure produces behavioral, physiological, and molecular changes in subsequent generations. However, the heritable effects of voluntary parental … Read More
Schmidt Lab members, Riley Merkel and Rae Herman, attended the 15th annual Behavior, Biology, and Chemistry: Translational Research in Substance Use Disorders in San Antonio March 24-26th. Riley and Rae both received travel awards to attend BBC 2023, present their … Read More
Congratulations to our graduate student, Rae Herman, for being awarded a National Research Service Award (NRSA) F31 predoctoral fellowship from NIH!! Rae is eager to utilize her funding to expand her exploration of GLP-1R circuits in the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) … Read More
Schmidt Lab members Antonia Caffrey, Rae Herman, and Riley Merkel presented their research at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, California (Nov. 12 – 16). In addition to displaying their original findings, the lab also … Read More