Craig W. Stevens

Biography

Dr. Stevens joined the department in 1990 following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis. He received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the Mayo Clinic Medical School in 1988 and a M.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1984. Before that, he served a 27-month tour-of-duty in the American Peace Corps in Nepal. He completed his undergraduate degree at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. Dr. Stevens is a native of Chicago, growing up in the city a few miles from Wrigley Field.

Research Interest

Dr. Stevens maintains research interests in two main areas of opioid pharmacology: 1) The evolution of opioid receptor proteins, and 2) the role of opioids in neuroimmune interactions. Brief descriptions of these research areas are given below; publications for further information are found in Dr. Stevens’ CV which is linked above. 1) The evolution of opioid receptor proteins is an avenue of research that began with the development of a non-mammalian alternative model for pain research using amphibians. After showing that opioids produce analgesia in amphibians similarly to that observed in rats, mice and humans, further studies suggested that the selectivity of opioid receptors in amphibians was different than those expressed in humans. Bioinformatic analysis alongside experimental studies confirmed novel hypotheses that the evolution of vertebrate opioid receptors is characterized by a vector of increasing selectivity and a significantly greater positive selection on the mu opioid receptor protein. Research skills used in this area are modern molecular techniques including mRNA isolation, PCR, quantitative Real-Time PCR, site-directed mutagenesis, and bioinformatics. 2) The role of opioids in neuroimmune interactions is a newer area of research catalyzed by the collaboration with Dr. Randall Davis. Opioids are a large class of well-known agents that are comprised of both exogenous drugs and endogenous opioid peptides. The established molecular targets of opioids are the three canonical opioid G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR); mu, delta and kappa. However, emerging evidence suggests that opioids exert actions through non-GPCR dependent mechanisms, which remain to be elucidated. Given the sheer numbers of people using and abusing opioids, it is essential that we know as much as possible, about as many as possible, opioid sites of action. The research projects in this area are geared towards characterizing novel opioid sites of action which modulate innate immune functions using microglia and astroglia cell cultures. Research skills used in this research are modern cell culture and assay techniques (Western blots, co-immunoprecipitation, ELISA) and molecular techniques including mRNA isolation, PCR, and quantitative Real-Time PCR.