Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids Unveils First-Ever Pilot Award Winners

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A recent press release announced the Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids (YC-SCAN²) revealed their Pilot Award winners (1). The award program provides over $600,000 worth of grants to 14 researchers from the Yale School of Medicine. With these funds, researchers will be able to use them on a variety of projects that will study the effects cannabis and cannabinoids have on mental health and neurodevelopment. Once the research studies gather and review the data, the information is then made available so that the public, scientific community, and healthcare professionals are able to be educated on the data findings.

In 2023, YC-SCAN² was founded and aimed to provide a space for cannabis research and related studies such as, cannabinoids (1,2). Deepak Cyril D’Souza, MD, Vikram Sodhi ’92 Professor of Psychiatry, directs and manages the program.

“We received a highly competitive set of applications making for a challenging selection process,” D’Souza explained (1). We are grateful to our reviewers who brought their expertise in basic and clinical sciences in reviewing these applications.” He added that (1), “The projects cover a broad range of topics from the effects of cannabinoids on fetal neurodevelopment and adolescent brain development, the therapeutic potential of beta-caryophyllene for pain, to the impact of cannabis in schizophrenia,” he said. “The projects are led by investigators at different stages of their careers utilizing several novel approaches. We are optimistic that these projects will advance the science of cannabis and cannabinoids and bring Yale closer to the forefront of cutting-edge research in the area.”

As mentioned in the press release, funding for the grants was provided by Yale University. Here is a list of the recipients are (1):

• Nicola Micali, PhD, associate research scientist. Pilot Project: Defining the impact of prenatal exposure to cannabinoids on primate brain development
• Kristen Brennand, PhD, Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry. Pilot Project: Deciphering the impact of prenatal exposure to THC on psychiatric disorder risk
• Godfrey D. Pearlson, MD, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience. Pilot Project: Oral beta-caryophyllene for the treatment of chronic reflex sympathetic dystrophy pain: An observational study
• Ruu Harn Cheng, PhD, postdoctoral associate. Pilot Project: Cognitive mechanisms of perceptual and reward processing in youth with and without cannabis use
• Michael J. Higley, MD, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience. Pilot Project: Consequences of developmental cannabinoid exposure for GABAergic circuits in the prefrontal cortex
• Albert Powers, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry, and Jose Cortes-Briones, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry. Pilot Project: Do the brain states produced by cannabis mimic those of the earliest phases of psychosis?
• Alfred P. Kaye MD, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry. Pilot Project: Computational behavioral and in vivo electrophysiological characterization of the emerging cannabinoid delta-8-THC
• Ruth H. Asch, PhD, associate research scientist. Pilot Project: Establishing a preclinical model to investigate mGlu5 receptor mechanisms in cannabis use
• Alicia Che, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry. Pilot Project: Developmental mechanisms for the effects of prenatal cannabinoid exposure on prefrontal circuitry
• Renato Polimanti, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and epidemiology. Pilot Project: Brain-wide pleiotropy investigation of cannabis use vs. cannabis use disorder
• Mohini Ranganathan, MD, associate professor of psychiatry. Pilot Project: Multimodal evaluation of cannabis use impact on schizophrenia risk
• Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD, Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, and Cheng Jiang, PhD, associate research scientist. Pilot Project: Impact of perinatal cannabinoid exposure on the histaminergic system: Relevance to tic disorders

References

1. Gardner, C. Yale Center for the science of cannabis and Cannabinoids Announces Inaugural Pilot award winners https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/yale-center-for-the-science-of-cannabis-and-cannabinoids-announces-inaugural-pilot-award-winners/ (accessed Nov 27, 2024).
2. Yale Center for the science of cannabis and cannabinoids YC-scan2 https://medicine.yale.edu/psychiatry/research/programs/center-science-cannabis-cannabinoids/ (accessed Nov 27, 2024).