opioids

What could be the first medical treatment for cocaine addiction is being created by Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) researchers Ming Xu, PhD, and Xiaoyang Wu, PhD. Their research edits a patch of normal skin using an engineering technology that puts an anti-cocaine gene into skin stem cells. This system allows Xu and Wu to take a small section of skin, add the anti-cocaine gene to the skin’s cells, and then put it back onto the patient through a process called grafting, a routine procedure where a piece of skin is added onto the body.

The concepts of known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns apply not only to intelligence and politics, but to any discipline where the gathering of knowledge is paramount. An all-day, multi site workshop on the devastating opioid crisis was held to discuss these concepts. The event, called "Developing a Research Agenda for Addressing the Opioid Epidemic in NC," was held on May 16, 2018 at the Research Triangle Park (RTP) Conference Center in Durham. Participants included doctors and researchers from UNC, Duke, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and more.

On June 22, 2018 the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research hosted a symposium to stimulate collaborations among researchers, industry partners and the community to advance new efforts to address the opioid crisis. More than 200 attendees gathered for the Columbia Opioid Symposium titled “New Collaborations Towards New Solutions”.

Experts in many corners of Penn Medicine are at work combatting the deadly toll of the opioid epidemic, including the physicians and researchers of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Survivors of opioid overdose have a higher risk of death than individuals who have not experienced an overdose. Effective strategies to lower that risk are critically important to combatting the opioid epidemic in the United States.

Medications to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) are one potential strategy, but research about the effect of medication use on survival after an overdose is limited. To address that gap, a team led by researchers from the Boston University CTSI reviewed medical records for more than 17,500 adults who had survived an opioid overdose.