Peter W. Schiller

Peter W. Schiller is a tenured Professor at the University of Montreal's Faculty of Medicine and an Emeritus Research Professor at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM). His research focuses on peptide-based drug development, particularly in opioid pharmacology, mitochondrial protection, and structure-activity relationships of bioactive peptides. He leads the Chemical and Polypeptide Biology unit at IRCM and has pioneered the development of bifunctional opioid peptides and mitochondria-targeted Szeto-Schiller (SS) peptides. His work integrates medicinal chemistry, molecular modeling, and pharmacological testing.

• Affiliations: IRCM, University of Montreal, Northeastern University (Adjunct).
• Key Projects: Development of opioid analgesics with reduced dependence, mitochondria-protective agents for aging-related diseases, and peptide drug delivery systems.

Research Expertise: Medicinal chemistry, molecular pharmacology of opioid peptides, NMR spectroscopy, molecular modeling of GPCRs, and peptide-receptor interactions. Methodologies include synthetic chemistry, in vitro bioassays, and computational modeling.

Publications: Over 200 peer-reviewed articles, including seminal work on opioid receptor antagonists, bifunctional analgesics, and mitochondria-targeted peptides. Recent studies highlight SS peptides' clinical potential for mitochondrial diseases and neurodegeneration.

• Awards: AAPS Research Achievement Award (2000), Officer of the National Order of Quebec (1999), Royal Society of Canada Fellowship (1991), and MERIT Award from NIH (1997).
• Grants: Continuous funding from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and NIH since the 1980s.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Chemical and Polypeptide Biology group at IRCM, collaborating with Northeastern University's Center for Drug Discovery and McGill University's Alan Edwards Centre for Pain Research.