Dr. Lucia Hipolito - 2024

Dr. Lucia Hipólito is a Tenured Associate Professor in Pharmacy at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Valencia, Spain. She serves as the Principal Investigator of the DOREAL lab at the University Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (BIOTECMED). Dr. Hipólito's research focuses on understanding neural mechanisms involving the endogenous opioid system underlying alcohol addiction, with the aim of developing safer and more efficient pharmaceutical therapies. Her interest in this field began during her PhD studies and was further cultivated during her postdoctoral period at Columbia University under the supervision of Dr. Morón-Concepción. During this time, she specialized in the intersection of pain and opioid addiction, investigating how pain alters reward processing and contributes to anhedonia and increased heroin selfadministration at high doses. Since joining the University of Valencia faculty in 2016, Dr. Hipólito has established an independent laboratory dedicated to exploring the neuropharmacology of alcohol addiction. Her research also focuses on understanding the role of the opioid system and the crosstalk between microglia and astroglia in alcohol-induced effects on the mesocorticolimbic system. Additionally, her lab investigates pain as a risk factor for promoting alcohol/opioid relapse-like behavior, aiming to develop new pharmaceutical approaches to promote abstinence in affected individuals.