STEVEN GRANT, PhD

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

Steven Grant, Ph.D., joined the Heffter Research Institute in 2021 after nearly 5 decades of conducting basic and clinical research on the action of drugs on the brain. His interest in the intersection of neuroscience and pharmacology started as an undergraduate when he read an article describing how psychedelic drugs act on brain serotonin receptors. His early career focused on pre-clinical research on brain aminergic and cholinergic neurotransmitter systems. He received a Ph.D. in 1979 from the University of Georgia in BioPsychology. His post-doctoral fellowship at the Psychiatry Department of Yale School of Medicine focused on neurophysiological and behavioral studies of the brain noradrenergic system. After completion of his fellowship, he received a research faculty appointment in the Department. Subsequently, he joined the Psychology Department at the University of Delaware as an assistant professor. While at Delaware he established an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in neuroscience. During this time he became interested in the newly emerging area of brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience. As a staff scientist at the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, he conducted studies on drug craving and decision-making in humans that combined brain pharmacology and cognitive neuroscience using brain imaging. He then joined the NIDA extramural staff as a Program Officer where he developed a nationwide funding program on the cognitive neuroscience of substance abuse and became chief of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch. After 25 years at NIDA, he retired and joined the Heffter Research Institute to pursue his original interest in psychedelic drug research.