The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio · PharmacologyThe Analgesic Innovation Lab
William P Clarke · San Antonio, Texas
Research Focus
Dr. William P. Clarke's lab focuses on developing new pain relief medications that are safer than current opioid drugs. By studying the combination of specific opioid receptors in pain-sensing neurons, the lab aims to create drugs that effectively reduce pain without the dangerous side effects associated with traditional opioids. Their research combines chemistry, pharmacology, and biotechnology to discover and test novel drug candidates.
opioid receptorsanalgesicspain managementdrug discoveryhigh-throughput screeningnociceptionallosteric modulationGPCR heteromersin vitro testingperipheral analgesia
Research Aims
5AIM 01Identify small drug-like molecules that activate the DOR-KOR heteromer in nociceptors.
AIM 02Develop a high-throughput screening method for potential analgesic compounds.
AIM 03Assess the antinociceptive efficacy of candidate compounds in rat models.
AIM 04Investigate the role of interprotomer allosterism in GPCR heteromer function.
AIM 05Create safer alternative pain therapies to combat the opioid crisis.
Skills the Lab Values
cell culturehigh-throughput screeningin vitro assaysstructure-activity relationship analysischemical compound library screeningADME screeninganimal modeling (rats)synthetic chemistrydata analysis with Pythonreceptor binding assays
Output against the department
Publications112bottom 30% of dept.320th of 462
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations5.3kbottom 39% of dept.280th of 462
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.