NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series

Opioid receptors and brain function

Opiates have been used since thousand years for their remarkable pain-relieving and rewarding properties. Opiates produce their potent effects by activating opioid receptors in the brain, highjacking an endogenous opioid system, which is central to hedonic and mood homeostasis. Recently, revolutions in G protein-coupled receptor research, fascinating developments in basic neuroscience and the rising opioid crisis have propelled opioid receptors back on stage.

Mitochondrial Behavior

The research in the Nunnari laboratory is devoted to understanding how the behavior of mitochondria is controlled in cells. Specifically, we are focused on two fundamental problems. The first is how the structure of mitochondria is established and maintained within cells. We are currently elucidating the molecular mechanisms that underlie mitochondrial division and fusion. Our second area of interest is on understanding how the mitochondrial genome is organized and faithfully segregated within the organelle.

Cytokine interference in immunity to infection

Dr. O'Garra studies the signals that control our immune systems, to understand how they respond to diseases such as tuberculosis and what goes wrong when they damage healthy cells.