Pilot Leaders

Alex French, PhD

Assistant Professor, School of Pharmacy

alex.french@uwyo.edu

Dr. Alexander French’s research sits at the intersection of neuroscience, pharmacology, and chemical biology. His lab is focused on understanding how alcohol and psychedelics alter the brain, with a particular interest in understanding how psychedelics could be reengineered to treat alcohol use disorder with reduced hallucinogeic potential. A large part of his work is in developing molecular tools such as high-throughput drug screens as well as optogenetic tools and biosensors to probe GPCR and neuropeptide signaling. His current portfolio includes NIH- and NASA-supported projects on psychedelic-induced sensory alterations, the neurobiology of alcohol misuse, and novel high-throughput drug screen development. His prior work provided fundamental insights into biased agonism at kappa opioid receptors, alcohol use disorder, and neuroendocrine modulation in Alzheimer’s disease models.