Marywood University will host Donald F. Slish, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and pre-health professions advisory committee chair at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh, for his presentation titled, “The Neurobiology of Opiate Addiction.”
The event will take place on Thursday, March 21, 2019, from 7-9 p.m., at the Center for Natural and Health Sciences, in the Comerford Theatre, and the presentation is free and open to the public.
According to the national Institute on Drug Abuse, “Every day, more than 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids. The misuse of and addiction to opioids— including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl —is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare.”
“The Neurobiology of Opiate Addiction” presentation will address questions, such as “How does addiction to these dangerous drugs happen?” Further, the presentation, aside from the psychological and sociological explanations, will discuss how our neurobiology predisposes us to repeating extremely pleasurable experiences, due to a network in the brain called the limbic system, which is part of our evolutionary inheritance.
Donald Slish teaches cell biology and pharmacology related courses, as well as introductory biology. He has always been fascinated by the mechanisms that drugs use to produce effects in the body, and he tries to bring this interest into all of his teaching. He also serves as the chief pre-medical advisor at Plattsburgh State and is very excited about helping students to realize their goals in medicine.
His scholarly interest is in pedagogical applications of interactive online media. This includes games and animations produced with Adobe Animate (formerly Flash), HTML5, CSS, and Javascript.
For additional information, please contact William P. Conlogue, Ph.D., professor of English at Marywood University, at conlogue@marywood.edu, or call (570) 961-4780.
By Steve Svetovich
By Steve Svetovich