Brendan Walker in his WSU lab.
PULLMAN, Wash. – A faculty member is one of about 25 scientists selected to participate in a prestigious international symposium this week, where he will discuss his work on drug and alcohol addiction and upcoming collaboration with WSU Spokane addiction researchers. This collaboration is expected to lead to combined behavioral and pharmaceutical therapies.
Brendan Walker, Washington State University associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, is at the fifth Indo-American “Frontiers of Science” symposium, sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Kavli Foundation, in Agra, India. “Frontiers of Science” facilitates collaboration between nationally and internationally recognized young scientists in the physical and life sciences. Some previous participants have gone on to become NAS members and Nobel Prize recipients.
Treatment approved in Europe
U.S. researchers selected to attend (characterized as primarily age 45 and younger) typically are recipients of prestigious national awards for significant contributions in new or emergent fields. Walker said his invitation, based on his award of the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), was completely unexpected.
“I was very surprised when the invitation from the president of the NAS came. It’s definitely an honor to do this and I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
Walker was awarded the PECASE for research leading to breakthrough developments in pharmaceutical treatments to combat alcohol and drug addiction. His research team’s ongoing collaboration with Lundbeck Pharmaceutical Company in Copenhagen, Demark helped to support the company’s successful European bid for approval of the pharmaceutical Nalmefene to treat alcohol dependence there.
Helping people who want to stop
“My work is about learning how to overcome addiction – and fighting the tremendous power these substances have over people – through neuroscience research,” Walker said. He first became interested in substance abuse treatment as a teenager when he saw heavy alcohol and drug use lead to an inability to stop in people he knew.
“I saw friends and acquaintances succumb to drugs of abuse and some of them died,” he said. “So, I got interested in what’s going on in the brain that makes these substances so powerful and how we can use that information to try and help people who want to stop.”
Research planned with WSU Spokane
At “Frontiers of Science,” Walker will give a short talk and present a poster on his pre-clinical pharmaceutical research developments on the role the dynorphin/kappa-opioid receptor system plays in the neurobiology of addictive disorders. He and his team have identified and implicated this system in pathological drug and alcohol intake, pathological depression and even in pathological impulsivity.
His poster will also emphasize an upcoming translational component of his research program that he will conduct with WSU Spokane addiction researchers John Roll and Donelle Howell. This collaboration should eventually lead to combined behavioral and pharmaceutical therapies based on versions of therapies Walker is testing in animal trials and on Roll and Howell’s human studies.
Synergy for unexpected collaboration
“Frontiers of Science” symposia area intentionally eclectic – so participants explain their work to an academically trained and scientifically diverse audience, including scientists from remote disciplines. The Indo-American symposium will focus on a variety of topics, such as the battle of the sexes, quasi particles and semiconducting devices, and ecological impacts of climate change.
This process allows participants to teach and learn from each other, honing communication skills and absorbing ideas from the entire scientific spectrum. It also instills young researchers with confidence to act as “ambassadors” or “delegates” in their fields.
Each symposium includes approximately 25 participants who report on research within their disciplines, highlighting major research challenges, methodologies and limitations to progress in their respective fields. Walker hopes the India symposium will create opportunities for synergy and for some unexpected collaborative projects.
“The symposium facilitates dialogue between different branches of science, hopefully allowing something to develop that wouldn’t have been there before,” he said.
New ideas, Nobel Prizes
By way of example, he cited new collaborative technology – a biosensor that allows researchers to record activity in the brain with minimal intrusion.
“That type of technology has, in a sense, come out of these types of integrative collaborative relationships,” he said. “And that’s what I’m hoping for – a serendipitous collaborative uniting of an international group of scientists.”
The symposium includes liberal discussion periods, allowing participants to actively collaborate. According to the Kavli Foundation website, past collaboration has led to new networks, research ideas and, in some cases, new career paths for participants.
The first “Frontiers of Science” symposium was held in Irvine, Calif., in March 1989. Since the program’s inception, it has expanded to include national and international symposia. Of the previous participants, 136 have been elected to the NAS and eight have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.