UNE pain and addiction research featured on front page of ‘Portland Press Herald’
UNE research on addiction and the development of less-addictive pain medications was highlighted in an August 13, 2015 article on the front page of the Portland Press Herald. Ed Bilsky, Ph.D., vice-president for Research and Scholarship, founding director of the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences and co-director of the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence for the Study of Pain and Sensory Function, was interviewed about his long career in pharmacology studying opiates and chronic pain.
The article highlighted the growing heroin epidemic, both in Maine and nationwide, stating that the number of heroin overdose deaths in Maine climbed from seven in 2011 to 57 in 2014.
Bilsky and a team of researchers from UNE and Southern Research in Birmingham, Alabama were recently awarded a five-year, $4.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Bilsky told the Press Herald that the research is both a valuable teaching tool for students and a crucial step in fighting addiction and chronic pain. “Every morning when I walk through this hallway and building, I remember that we are doing this for people,” Bilsky said.