Jay McLaughlin, Ph.D.
CVS/Pharmacy Inc. Professor of Cellular and Systems Pharmacology
College of Pharmacy
Jay McLaughlin’s research uses molecular, pharmacological, anatomical and behavioral methods to identify the neurobiological systems that underlie behaviors and their disorders. Using principles of both basic science and drug discovery, McLaughlin aims to develop novel therapeutic interventions for these neurological disorders.
McLaughlin is currently focused on two research areas. First, he studies the neurological basis of the cognitive deficits, mood disorders and increased addiction liabilities associated with NeuroAIDS, a syndrome common in patients with HIV. Second, his work in opioid receptor pharmacology seeks to accelerate the development of improved analgesics and treatments for substance abuse that are less likely to result in addiction, abuse, respiratory depression and overdose.
McLaughlin joined the College of Pharmacy in 2015 as an associate professor of pharmacodynamics and was promoted to professor in 2020. Before joining UF, he worked at the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies and co-founded Assuage Pharmaceuticals, both in Port St. Lucie, Florida. He also served as an assistant professor of psychology at Northeastern University in Boston. He received master’s and doctoral degrees in neuroscience from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York.
To date, McLaughlin has published over 110 peer- reviewed articles and generated over $15 million in National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense funding as a principal investigator. His work routinely appears in high-profile scientific journals, including Nature, Nature Communications, eLife, Neuropsychopharmacology and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
McLaughlin has also generated 10 patent applications. He has mentored nine doctoral students, several postdoctoral trainees and more than 100 undergraduate students in his laboratory.
“Dr. McLaughlin and his research program represent an outstanding example of scholarship, scientific impact, productivity, collegiality, collaboration and success,” said Charles J. Frazier, chair of the Department of Pharmacodynamics.