Campbell/Spillane Substance Use Research - Interview with Kenner Rice

Abstract

Kenner C. Rice, PhD, is Chief, Drug Design and Synthesis Section at the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Senior Investigator and Branch Chief at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Since joining the NIH in 1972, Dr. Rice has mentored more than 70 postdoctoral fellows from 20 countries, many of whom have gone on to prominent scientific positions in industry, government, and academia. He has authored or coauthored more than 600 published papers and has over 40 patents. Dr. Rice received his BS degree from the Virginia Military Institute in 1961. He then received his doctorate in organic chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1966, where he also conducted postdoctoral work. He conducted antimalarial research at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as an active duty member of the Army, and also was a senior scientist at Ciba-Geigy for three years, before joining the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases (now the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) as a senior staff fellow in 1972. Dr. Rice moved to NIDA in 2006. Among Dr. Rice’s contributions spanning his long career are the development of the NIH Opiate Total Synthesis, which allows medical opiates to be produced synthetically in any quantity, offering opiate researchers independence from foreign sources of opium and providing insights for the development of new non-opioid drugs. Rice’s work also led to the discovery of an imaging agent for positron emission tomography (PET)— a medical imaging technique for study of biochemistry in living humans—that is now being used to study how opioid drugs work in the brain; and the development of medications that prevent cocaine self-administration in rhesus monkeys. These agents may be useful in treating cocaine and methamphetamine abuse in humans as well. Currently, no effective medication therapies exist for addiction to these stimulant drugs. He received the Smissman Award presented by the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2007. Sources: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nidas-dr-kenner-c-rice-receives-prestigious-smissman-award Accessed 16 Mar 2023. https://irp.nida.nih.gov/staff-members/kenner-c-rice-ph-d/ Accessed 16 Mar 2023. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/about-niaaa/our-staff/kenner-rice-phd Accessed 16 Mar 2023.