Grégory Scherrer, PharmD, PhD

 

 

Associate Professor – Department of Cell Biology

and Physiology, UNC School of Medicine,

Chapel Hill, NC

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"The Neurobiology of Pain Experience and its Modulation by Opioids"

 

                                           Time: 3pm to 4pm

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Biography

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Dr. Scherrer received his PharmD and PhD degrees from the University of Strasbourg, France. He subsequently completed two postdoctoral trainings, first in Neurophysiology of the Spinal Cord Dorsal Horn at University of California San Francisco and second in Neurobiology of Pain and its Control at Columbia University. Before moving to the UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, he was an Assistant Professor at Stanford University.

 

Dr. Scherrer research current interests lie the neuroanatomy of neural circuits that underlie pain perception, opioid analgesia, and addiction. His laboratory investigates the sensory, emotional and cognitive dimensions of pain, and how opioids act in neural circuits to produce pain relief and their deleterious side effects such as tolerance, addiction and respiratory depression. Dr. Scherrer’s multidisciplinary research combines molecular and cellular biology, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, optogenetics, chemogenetics, in vivo recordings of neural activity, and behavioral experiments.

 

By uncovering the fundamental neurobiological processes by which our nervous system shapes pain experience and responds to opioids, Dr. Scherrer research aids the development of novel therapeutics to block pain more efficiently, and with reduced side effects, compared to current medications.

 

Dr. Scherrer mentors and trains graduate and undergraduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows. His research has been funded by multiple agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Rita Allen Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Brain Research Foundation, and the New York Stem Cell Foundation.

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