Jess Anand is Research Faculty. Jess uses in vitro techniques to examine the structure activity relationships of novel opioid compounds to develop novel rescue therapies, opioid maintenance therapies, and new analgesics with reduced abuse potential. Jess holds a BA in Biochemistry from Barnard College, Columbia University and a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Michigan.

Mengchu Li is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow.  Mengchu holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Dual MS and BS from Temple University and China Pharmaceutical University.  

Ben Clements is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. He received his B.S. in Biology and Chemistry at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, where he studied transport of cations across the intestinal epithelium. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, where he studied the pharmacokinetics and pharmacology of GluN2B-specific NMDA-receptor antagonists derived from the endogenous amine, agmatine. This research centered on the distribution of these compounds to the CNS and action on NMDA-evoked behaviors. At the University of Michigan, Ben’s research focuses on in vitro and in vivo pharmacological characterization of mu-opioid receptor allosteric modulators.

Catherine Demery is a second year PhD pre-candidate.  She received a BS in Biochemistry at the University of Michigan and a MS in Pharmacogenomics at Manchester University, where her research focused on pharmacogenetic modeling in zebrafish.  Following her master's, she worked for the NIH studying immunological mechanisms in pregnancy.  Here, Catherine's work will focus on elucidating how fentanyl signaling causes greater respiratory depression than other opioids using in vitro and in vivo techniques.