The Booth Lab

About us

Our group focuses on the development of drug candidates to treat neuropsychiatric disorders through the intersection of medicinal chemistry and neuropharmacology. Our research identifies monoaminergic G protein-coupled receptors of therapeutic interest and aims to discover hit compounds selective for the target. Hit compounds are optimized using a structure-based drug design strategy that is guided by our pharmacological and computational chemistry findings. Lead compounds undergo rigorous in vitro and in vivo pharmacological studies to identify drug-like compounds. The laboratory is on track to an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application regarding drugs that target brain serotonin and adrenergic receptors for treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders and neurological disorders, including, autism, substance use disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and epilepsy. Development continues to proceed under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Boston-based pharmaceutical industry partners, including the Northeastern start-up biotech, Seropeutics. In addition to receptor structure-based ligand design and synthesis of new chemical entities, laboratory drug discovery and development technology includes computational chemistry and molecular modeling, molecular pharmacology and pharmacokinetics, MRI brain imaging, and translational studies using rodents and monkeys for development of drug candidates.