{"id":103119,"date":"2019-09-26T14:07:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T18:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=103119"},"modified":"2019-09-30T09:34:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T13:34:01","slug":"nih-awards-ucf-researcher-3-8-million-to-study-opiate-overdoses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/nih-awards-ucf-researcher-3-8-million-to-study-opiate-overdoses\/","title":{"rendered":"NIH Awards UCF Researcher $3.8 Million to Study Opiate Overdoses"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced that UCF will receive a $3.8 million milestone based grant to better understand how overdosing on opiates works, their impact on multiple organs and the effect of drugs used to treat overdoses, including potential toxicity of organs.<\/p>\n

James Hickman, a professor at UCF\u2019s NanoScience Technology Center, is the lead scientist on the proposal. He\u2019s developed a human-on-a-chip in vitro system that mimics multiple human organs. The technology will allow him to conduct this work without harming patients or animals. He developed the system at UCF in collaboration with Michael Shuler at Cornell University. UCF has licensed the technology to Hesperos, a company Hickman co-founded and where he serves as chief scientist.<\/p>\n

While many organizations are researching the impact of opiates, UCF\u2019s team was selected because it can do it via this artificial human-on-a-chip multiple organ system. The technology could help replace animal testing in the future by providing a platform to conduct pharmaceutical research with validated success, Hickman says.<\/p>\n

The new funding comes from the NIH\u2019s Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL.<\/a> The initiative aims to improve treatments for chronic pain, curb the rates of opioid use disorder and overdose, and achieve long-term recovery from opioid addiction.<\/p>\n

“We are grateful to have funding to support research in an area that represents such a large and growing need,” Hickman says. “Our interconnected human-on-a-chip system provides a non-invasive way to emulate the response of compounds among all ‘organ’ compartments, and to concurrently predict potential toxicity and efficacy of drugs, including opioids and opioid antagonists such as Narcan.”<\/p>\n

UCF\u2019s award is one of 375 grants across 41 states made by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2019 to apply scientific solutions to reverse the national opioid crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that a multi-pronged scientific approach is needed to reduce the risks of opioids, accelerate development of effective non-opioid therapies for pain and provide more flexible and effective options for treating addiction to opioids,\u201d says NIH Director Francis S. Collins, who launched<\/a> the initiative in early 2018. \u201cThis unprecedented investment in the NIH HEAL Initiative demonstrates the commitment to reversing this devastating crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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