Researchers develop safer opioid painkiller from scratch
Brian Shoichet, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, is co-senior author of a study published in Nature that used the newly deciphered atomic structure of the brain’s “morphine receptor” to custom engineer a novel drug candidate that blocked pain as effectively as morphine in mouse experiments but did not share the potentially deadly side effects typical of opioid drugs.