Heath D. Schmidt, PhD
A neuropharmacologist and director of the Laboratory of Neuropsychopharmacology , Dr. Heath D. Schmidt approaches research on drugs of abuse in several ways: to understand drug addiction as a disease of the brain, to develop new pharmacotherapies to treat addiction, and to better understand how the brain works.
Dr. Schmidt also explores how food, especially the Western diet consisting of foods high in sugar and fat, changes the brain to produce aberrant food-seeking behaviors that can lead to obesity.
“Our research investigates how drugs of abuse like cocaine, prescription opioids, and nicotine change the brain to produce addiction-like behaviors.”
Education
- PhD, Boston University School of Medicine , 2007
- BS, George Washington University, 1999
Teaching
Dr. Schmidt teaches advanced pharmacology and neuroscience courses to undergraduate and graduate students at Penn. The clinical experiences the nursing students share with him in the classroom, including caring for patients with drug addiction, eating disorders, mood disorders and cognitive impairments, helps inform his research.
Research
Dr. Schmidt’s current research into cocaine, prescription opioid, and nicotine addiction, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, focuses on the molecular, biochemical, epigenetic, and behavioral mechanisms underlying drug taking and seeking. Through this research, he is identifying novel neurobiological mechanisms that regulate addiction-like behaviors to understand how chronic exposure to drugs of abuse changes the brain to produce drug-seeking behaviors. This area of research is particularly important to nurses, who occupy the front lines of patient care for those struggling with drug addiction.
Nicotine, Smoking, and Cocaine
In 2015 and 2016, Dr. Schmidt published the results of several studies involving nicotine and cocaine funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death worldwide and current smoking cessation medications have limited efficacy. Dr. Schmidt’s translational study on nicotine, for the first time incorporated his preclinical rat findings with data from human smokers. Both indicated that the repeated use of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor reduces nicotine reinforcement in rats and smoking behavior in humans. This study provides strong support for larger clinical trials of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors for smoking cessation. Since acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are already approved by the FDA, these findings also suggest that these medications could be re-purposed for preventing smoking relapse.
Additional study results published by Dr. Schmidt and his colleagues identified novel mechanisms that regulate cocaine-taking and cocaine-seeking behaviors in rats. Dr. Schmidt reported that activation of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptors (GLP-1Rs) in the brain reduced voluntary cocaine taking in rats. The provocative findings highlight a new mechanism regulating cocaine taking and suggest that GLP-1R agonists, which are FDA-approved for treating type II diabetes and obesity, could be re-purposed for cocaine dependence.
Opportunities to Learn and Collaborate at Penn Nursing
In his laboratory, Dr. Schmidt has supervised and mentored dozen of research assistants and students. He maintains an open-door office policy for any student interested in research aimed at understanding the brain, drug addiction as a disease of the brain, and improving healthcare.
Selected Career Highlights
- Certificate of Excellence in Reviewing, Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry
- Member, Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, Basic Science Network Advisory Committee
- Member, Molecular and Cellular Cognition Society
- Member, Society for Neuroscience
Selected Publications
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Guercio, L. A., Hofmann, M. E., Swinford-Jackson, S. E., Sigman, J. S., Wimmer, M. E., Dell’Acqua, M. L., … Pierce, R. C. (2018). A-Kinase Anchoring Protein 150 (AKAP150) promotes cocaine reinstatement by increasing AMPA Receptor transmission in the accumbens shell. Neuropsychopharmacology, 43(6), 1395-1404. (PMID: 29317777). 10.1038/npp.2017.297
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Ashare, R.L., Kimmey, B.A., Rupprecht, L.E., Bowers, M.E., Hayes, M.R., & Schmidt, H.D. (2017). Repeated administration of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor attenuates nicotine taking in rats and smoking behavior in human smokers. Translational Psychiatry, 7(3), e1072. (PMID: 28350399; PMCID: PMC5404614).10.1038/tp.2017.46
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Van Nest, D., Hernandez, N. S., Kranzler, H. R., Pierce, R. C., & Schmidt, H. D. (2017). Effects of LY466195, a selective kainate receptor antagonist, on ethanol preference and drinking in rats. Neuroscience Letters, 639, 8-12. (PMID: 28013091; PMCID: PMC5272788). 10.1016/j.neulet.2016.12.050
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Alhadeff, A. L., Mergler, B. D., Zimmer, D. J., Turner, C. A., Reiner, D. J., Schmidt, H. D., … Hayes, M. R. (2017). Endogenous glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor signaling in the nucleus tractus solitarius is required for food intake control. Neuropsychopharmacology, 42(7), 1471-1479. (PMID: 27782127; PMCID: PMC5436110). 10.1038/npp.2016.246
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Maurer, J. J., Sandager-Nielsen, K., & Schmidt, H. D. (2017). Attenuation of nicotine taking and seeking in rats by the stoichiometry-selective alpha4beta2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor positive allosteric modulator NS9283. Psychopharmacology(Berl), 234(3), 475-484. (PMID: 27844094). 10.1007/s00213-016-4475-7
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Fowler, C. D., Gipson, C. D., Kleykamp, B. A., Rupprecht, L. E., Harrell, P. T., Rees, V. W., … De Biasi, M. (2017). Basic science and public policy: Informed regulation for nicotine and tobacco products. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, published online 8/3/2017. (PMID: 29065200). 10.1093/ntr/ntx175
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Hernandez, N. S., O’Donovan, B., Ortinski, P. I., & Schmidt, H. D. (2017). Activation of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptors in the nucleus accumbens attenuates cocaine seeking in rats. Addiction Biology, published online 12/11/2017. (PMID: 29226617). 10.1111/adb.12583
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Schmidt, H. D. (2017). Cocaine rearranges the neuronal epigenome. Biological Psychiatry, 82(11), 776-778. (PMID: 29110817). 10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.09.016
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Mietlicki-Baase, E. G., McGrath, L. E., Koch-Laskowski, K., Krawczyk, J., Reiner, D. J., Pham, T., … Hayes, M. R. (2017). Amylin receptor activation in the ventral tegmental area reduces motivated ingestive behavior. Neuropharmacology, 123, 67-79. (PMID: 28552704). 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2017.05.024
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Reiner, D. J., Mietlicki-Baase, E. G., Olivos, D. R., McGrath, L. E., Zimmer, D. J., Koch-Laskowski, K., … Hayes, M. R. (2017). Amylin acts in the lateral dorsal tegmental nucleus to regulate energy balance through gamma-aminobutyric acid signaling. Biological Psychiatry, 82(11), 828-838. (PMID: 28237459). 10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.12.028
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Novel Research Aims to Identify New Medications for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder
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Effective Interventions for Lifestyle Behaviors
At a national workshop in Bethesda, Maryland, Heath Schmidt , PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences, joined colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania to discuss translating neuroscience, pharmacology, and behavioral science into improved treatments for smoking cessation.