The mission of the Van Rijn lab is to uncover new strategies to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders. We specifically investigate the heavily co-morbid triad of ​drug use disorders, chronic pain disorders and mood disorders. Our primary target, the ​delta opioid receptor, is involved in the neuropharmacology of all three disorders and thus offers an exciting novel approach to treat these disorders. The Van Rijn lab covers all aspects of preclinical drug development including drug synthesis, drug screening, pharmacological characterization both in vitro and in vivo. We also perform mechanistic studies to improve our understanding of the etiology of these disorders.

News - 2021

December 1st, 2021 - Congratulations to, now officially, Dr, Anna Gutridge for her successful defense of a well-written and presented thesis entitled "Evaluation of naturally occurring opioids and synthetic derivatives for therapeutic application in alcohol abuse and pain"

November 26th, 2021 - Our latest manuscript "Identification of a novel delta opioid receptor agonist chemotype with potential negative allosteric modulator capabilities" has been accepted in Molecules.

November 17th, 2021 - Congratulations to Yazan Meqbil for passing his original proposal exam to become an official PhD candidate.

October 8th, 2021 - Our second collaborative kratom manuscript with the Majumdar lab at St. Louis College of Pharmacy entitled "Evaluation of kratom opioid derivatives as potential treatment option for alcohol use disorder" was accepted in Frontiers in Pharmacology for their special issue "The pharmacology of kratom and its alkaloids"

September 29th, 2021 -  A multi-site team consisting of the Van Rijn and Chopra Labs at Purdue and Dr. Timothy Richardson (IUSM), Daniel Robertson (IBRI) was one of four teams to complete milestone 1 and move our 2020 NCATS ASPIRE Reduction-to-Practice Challenge Prize titled "Accelerating Molecular Innovation in Pain through an AI-Driven, Human-Guided, and Automated Open Drug Discovery Platform" to stage 2.

September 1st, 2021 - A manuscript, "A novel mitragynine analog displays low efficacy mu opioid agonism at Gi/o subtypes and antinociception with attenuated adverse effects" describing the discovery of a novel mu opioid partial agonist with beneficial in vivo effects by the Majumdar lab that we collaborated on has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

August 11, 2021 - Our second collaborative manuscript with the Altman lab "Modulating β-Arrestin-2 Recruitment at the δ- and μ-Opioid Receptors" has been accepted for publication in RCS Med Chem. Key contributions performed by Krishna Sharma (chemistry), Robert Cassell (Pharmacology) and Yazan Meqbil (Computation).

August 3rd, 2021 Our manuscript "β-Arrestin–dependent ERK signaling reduces anxiety-like and conditioned fear–related behaviors in mice" was published in Science Signaling and an experimental image was used as coverart. This was the thesis project of MeeJung Ko.

​July 3rd, 2021 - Alexander French gave a virtual presentation at the 2021 International Narcotics Research Conference describing the development of a novel multiplexed beta-arrestin 1 and 2 recruitment assay. The title of the presentation was "Real-time assay for simultaneous recruitment of arrestin isoforms to delta opioid receptor"

June 21, 2021 - The American Chemical Society labelled Akuammine their 'Molecule of the Week' highlighting our recent publication with the Riley lab studying akuamma alkaloids from Picralima Nitada.

May 27th, 2021 - a manuscript by Farrokh Sharifi (Kinam Park lab postdoc) titled "Engineering Quick- and Long-acting Naloxone Delivery Systems for Treating Opioid Overdose" that we collaborated on has been accepted in Pharmacological Research.

May 25th, 2021 - Congratulations to Arryn Blaine for receiving the Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship from the Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs.

April 30th, 2021 - Big congratulations to Arryn Blaine for winning the ASPET Dolores C. Shockley poster award for her poster titled "Role of beta-arrestin Isoforms in Delta Opioid Receptor Agonist-Induced Seizures​"

April 28th, 2021 - Dr. van Rijn was selected by the International Narcotics Research Conference as their 2021 Young Investigator Award winner

April 23rd, 2021 - The Van Rijn lab contributed to a preprint by the Majumdar lab titled "A novel mitragynine analog with low efficacy mu-opioid receptor agonism displays antinociception with attenuated adverse effects".

April 23rd, 2021 - A multi-site team consisting of the Van Rijn and Chopra Labs at Purdue and Dr. Timothy Richardson (IUSM), Daniel Robertson (IBRI) was one of the five teams to receive a 2020 NCATS ASPIRE Reduction-to-Practice Challenge Prize for a project titled "Accelerating Molecular Innovation in Pain through an AI-Driven, Human-Guided, and Automated Open Drug Discovery Platform"

April 23rd, 2021 - The Leung Lab's paper Drug Screening with Zebrafish Visual Behavior Identifies Carvedilol as a Potential Treatment for an Autosomal Dominant form of Retinitis Pigmentosa that we collaborated on has been accepted in Scientific Reports.

​April 1st, 2021 - Dr. van Rijn has joined the editorial board of Advances in Drug and Alcohol Research - a new official journal of the International Drug Abuse Research Society and the International Narcotics Research Conference. 

March 23rd, 2021 - Dr. van Rijn and collaborators Drs Lill and Cushman were awarded a US patent 10,954,224 on delta opioid agonists.

March 23rd, 2021 - Dr. van Rijn presented a virtual seminar on "Identification of Natural and Synthetic Opioids to Treat Neurological Disorders" to chemistry students at Olivet Nazerene University.

March 1st, 2021 - Congratulations to Alex French for receiving an incentive award from the Purdue Animal Behavior Core to study the effects of kappa opioid drugs on ataxia.

January 11-13th, 2021 - Arryn Blaine and Alex French presented virtual posters at the Society for Neuroscience Global Connectome meeting. Arryn presented her poster titled "beta-arrestin recruitment is correlated with Delta Opioid Receptor Agonist-Induced Seizure Severity", Alex's poster was titled "Relating alcohol consumption behavior to ligand bias at the kappa opioid receptor"

January 11th, 2021 - Congratulations to Arryn Blaine for winning best poster during the PULSe Graduate recruitment event.
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If you appreciate the research carried out in the Van Rijn lab and support our goals feel free to donate to the advancement of science. Donations will be used to help support (undergraduate) students and carry out experiments exploring exciting new preliminary projects, currently not funded through other mechanisms.
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RECENT PUBLICATIONS

January 18th, 2022 - Our invited review "An updated assessment of the translational promise of G-protein-biased kappa opioid receptor agonists to treat pain and other indications without debilitating adverse effects" was accepted in Pharmacological Research

November 26th, 2021 - Our latest manuscript "Identification of a novel delta opioid receptor agonist chemotype with potential negative allosteric modulator capabilities" has been accepted in Molecules. in the special issue Opioids and Their Receptors: Present and Emerging Concepts in Opioid Drug Discovery II

​October 8th, 2021 - Our second collaborative kratom manuscript with the Majumdar lab at St. Louis College of Pharmacy entitled "Evaluation of kratom opioid derivatives as potential treatment option for alcohol use disorder" was accepted in Frontiers in Pharmacology for their special issue "The pharmacology of kratom and its alkaloids"

​September 1st, 2021 - A manuscript, "A novel mitragynine analog displays low efficacy mu opioid agonism at Gi/o subtypes and antinociception with attenuated adverse effects" describing the discovery of a novel mu opioid partial agonist with beneficial in vivo effects by the Majumdar lab that we collaborated on has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

August 11th, 2021 - Our second collaborative manuscript with the Altman lab "Modulating β-Arrestin-2 Recruitment at the δ- and μ-Opioid Receptors" has been accepted for publication in RCS Medicinal Chemistry. 

August 3rd, 2021 - Our manuscript "β-Arrestin–dependent ERK signaling reduces anxiety-like and conditioned fear–related behaviors in mice" was published in Science Signaling and an experimental image was used as coverart


Disclaimer of opinion
The information, statements and opinions presented on the the Van Rijn lab website are solely expressed by Dr. van Rijn and do not necessarily represent views held by Purdue University.