As part of Proposition 64 funding to the CMCR, the Center is pleased to announce three new studies that have been selected for funding. These proposals were submitted in response to the Spring 2023 call, which was open to all California higher education and nonprofit research institutions. The final selection was based on external peer review, advice of the CMCR’s National Advisory Council, and attentiveness to CMCR priorities. A new call for proposals will be announced in Spring 2024.

Principal Investigator: Edythe London, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science; and Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
Institution: UCLA
Title: Evaluating the efficacy of cannabidiol for reducing cigarette use
Funding amount: $825,000
Dr. London’s research will evaluate if CBD can facilitate smoking cessation.

Principal Investigator: Antoine Snijders, PhD, Senior Scientist, BioEngineering and BioMedical Sciences
Institution:Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Title: Contribution of genetic factors to individual differences in anxiety in response to the cannabinoids THC and CBD
Funding amount: $300,000
Dr. Snijders’ pre-clinical proposes to delineate genetic variation that underlies the adverse and/or beneficial effects of THC and CBD on anxiety, and mechanistically investigate the differential response to THC and CBD by analyzing CBD-altered liver and hippocampal transcript profiles.

Principal Investigator: Fadel Zeidan, PhD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
Institution: UC San Diego
Title: The effects and brain mechanisms supporting cannabis-induced chronic low back pain relief
Funding amount: $300,000
Dr. Zeidan’s study aims to determine if medium-dose cannabis can attenuate acutely evoked chronic low back pain as compared to a very low dose cannabis This study also aims to identify the neural mechanisms supporting pain relief by cannabis.

Congratulations to the new CMCR Investigators!

- Igor Grant, MD, Director