Over the past few decades, the opioid epidemic has gripped the United States, fueled in large part by the over-prescription of pain relieving drugs like oxycodone. As those pharmaceuticals were made more difficult to obtain, opioids such as heroin and fentanyl began new waves of the epidemic and more deaths from overdose. Fentanyl and its cousins, known as fentalogs (fentanyl analogs) are particularly dangerous—just two milligrams can prove lethal. All of these drugs act at the mu-opioid receptor, which is responsible for their pain relieving properties as well as their addictive and lethal properties. University of Michigan basic science researchers hope that the solution to prevent people dying from overdose due to fentanyl can be found within its own chemistry. Read the full article featuring Institute faculty affiliate members Drs. Jess Anand and John Traynor
Additional mentions