We’ve long known that appetite-regulating peptides play a role in alcohol use disorder — but where in the brain does this happen? Our latest study points to a surprising player: the paraventricular thalamus (PVT). In our recent paper, we found … Read More
One in nine Americans will undergo a surgical procedure during their lifetime; for some, the treatment of postoperative pain represents their first prolonged exposure to an opioid. New persistent opioid use (NPOU)—defined as continued use beyond the typical three-month recovery … Read More
Grace Zhang presented a poster at the Mid-Atlantic Pharmacology Society 2025 Conference at the Smilow Center for Translational Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Working with collaborators Antonia Caffery and Ricardo Petrilli Fortuna, Zhang investigated Exendin-Phe (Ex-Phe), a biased GLP-1 … Read More
In August, Rae successfully defended her thesis entitled “Behavioral and Circuit-Level Insights into GLP-1 Receptor Agonist-Mediated Reduction of Drug Seeking”. Since joining the lab in 2019, Rae has consistently produced exceptional and impactful work. She has also been an incredible … Read More
On June 2, 2025, Antonia, Enzo, and colleagues published a study in the British Journal of Pharmacology titled ‘A GLP-1R/Y1 receptor/Y2 receptor triple agonist decreases fentanyl-evoked dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens and attenuates fentanyl taking and seeking in rats’. … Read More
On July 10th, researchers from the Jerlhag and Schmidt laboratories published groundbreaking findings in European Neuropsychopharmacology demonstrating that semaglutide—a GLP-1R medication currently used for diabetes and weight management—significantly reduces cocaine-seeking behaviors in laboratory studies. The study, titled “Semaglutide suppresses cocaine … Read More
Austin Pothikamjorn has officially graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and is leaving the Schmidt Lab to begin an exciting new chapter. He will be joining the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA … Read More
Recent studies show that systemic administration of a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist is sufficient to attenuate cocaine seeking. However, the neural mechanisms mediating these effects and the role of endogenous central GLP-1 signaling in cocaine seeking remain unknown. Here, … Read More
On October 4, 2024, Dr. Schmidt delivered a talk at the annual NIDA-NIAAA Frontiers in Addiction Research Mini-Convention, hosted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The event, held … Read More
