Greg Scherrer

Greg Scherrer, PhD is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, holding appointments in the Cell Biology & Physiology and Pharmacology departments. As a member of the UNC Neuroscience Center, his research focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying pain perception and opioid action.

Research Interests:

• Elucidating genetic, molecular, and circuit-level mechanisms of pain experience
• Investigating opioid receptor localization, trafficking, and signaling to dissociate analgesia from side effects
• Developing mouse models to study endogenous opioid systems
• Addressing the opioid epidemic through novel non-addictive drug targets

Recent Research Trends: His work spans opioid receptor dynamics in neural circuits, microglial-neuronal interactions in pain, and chemogenetic approaches to peripheral drug action. Publications highlight the role of delta and mu opioid receptors in pain pathways, placebo pain relief mechanisms, and neuroimmune contributions to chronic pain.

Lab Affiliation: The Scherrer Lab employs interdisciplinary techniques including mouse genetics, in vivo imaging, and computational modeling to advance pain therapeutics.