HIGH POINT, N.C., Oct. 19, 2020 – Dr. Comfort Boateng, assistant professor of basic pharmaceutical sciences in High Point University’s Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy, received a $428,000 research grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Over the next two years, Boateng and her students will research and develop a medication to treat psychostimulant abuse, such as cocaine use disorder. The research focuses on design, synthesis, and pharmacological evaluation of selective ligands for the dopaminergic receptor systems as molecular tools. This research leads toward potential treatment medications for psychostimulant abuse and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
“With no current FDA-approved treatment, there is a need to develop medication to treat psychostimulant abuse, such as cocaine use disorder,” says Boateng. “The goal of this research is to identify new treatments for cocaine addiction and relapse. This proposal has the potential to provide medication development to treat cocaine use disorder.”
Earlier this year, Boateng received an American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s (AACP) New Investigator Award. She was recognized for her project, titled “Dopamine D4 Receptor Antagonists for Treatment of Cocaine Use Disorder.”
As one of only 16 awardees, Dr. Boateng competed for the award against eligible faculty from all 143 pharmacy schools in the U.S. The New Investigator Award provides start-up funding for the independent research programs of early-career pharmacy faculty and is intended to be early extramural research funding received for a faculty member to build a foundation for future scholarly endeavors and continued extramural funding success.
