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Neuroscience undergrads study binding behaviors of synthetic opioids
Leah Juechter ’24 was among the researchers who studied binding behaviors of the mu opioid receptor.
Science news aggregator, Phys.org, picked up a Furman News story about three neuroscience alumni and other collaborators who researched how to make opioids safer for managing chronic pain. In chemistry Professor George Shields’ lab, Furman University undergraduates Lauren Jones ’22, Brenna Outten ’22 and Leah Juechter ’24 applied computational chemistry methods to better understand the binding process between the mu opioid receptor and synthetic opioids like fentanyl and morphine. Their paper was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B.