Dr. Comfort Boateng’s proposal has the potential to provide medication discovery to treat disorders such as ADHD and substance use.

High Point, NC - The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $2,235,000 grant to Dr. Comfort Boateng, assistant professor of basic pharmaceutical sciences in High Point University’s Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy. The grant is part of the Avenir Award Program, which looks toward the future by supporting early-stage investigators proposing highly innovative research in chemistry and pharmacology related to substance abuse disorders and addiction.

Boateng is a nationally renowned medicinal chemist whose research has focused on finding better treatment for drug addiction and relapse. In this project, she will work over five years to discover candidate medications and develop new molecular tools to study the dopamine D4 receptor (D4R) and its variants. Developing new molecular tools to explain the role of D4R variant signaling through the discovery of selective compounds can untangle the important signaling effects of this receptor and identify potential targets for medication development for ADHD and substance use disorders.

“Our proposal has the potential to provide medication discovery to treat disorders such as ADHD and substance use,” says Boateng, an accomplished scholar with more than 52 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts. “The award reflects the high quality of research conducted with our students, both undergraduate and professional pharmacy students, and the excellent facilities available in the Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy.”

Boateng is the recipient of several NIH awards and fellowships, including a previous $428,000 grant, serving as a research fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, participating in a research internship at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and earning the NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence 2016. She is also the recipient of two summer Project SEED Awards from the American Chemical Society and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s (AACP) New Investigator Award.

She has been invited to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Molecular Neuropharmacology and Signaling Study Section; the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse, Special Emphasis Panel; the NIH, Drug Discovery for the Nervous System Study Section; and the NIH, Center for Scientific Review, Early Career Reviewer program. 

“I am excited and honored to receive this grant award, as it shows that the research carried out in my lab has been valued by distinguished researchers at the forefront of neuropsychiatry,” says Boateng, who is also a recipient of HPU’s Ruth Ridenhour Scholarly and Professional Achievement Award. “This award will allow my research group to have greater involvement in understanding how the chemical details of the brain contribute to the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders – one of the most challenging areas of modern medicine.”