Dr. Pert and Opiates

In the 1970’s, Candace B. Pert PhD was working on a research team at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the 1970s when they found the opiate receptor in the brain, one of the most sought-after objects in brain research (and later also discovered endorphins). This discovery helped change the way opiate addiction was viewed and even managed. In 1978, so the story goes, this discovery earned the coveted Albert Lasker Award, touted as typical precursor to the Nobel Prize. Pert was not named in the aware, nor any of the other lab assistants cited. The protestation of this omission by neuroscientist Pert created a world-wide sensation. Nevertheless, she went on to become a leading proponent of the close connection between mind and body, and the ability of emotions to affect health—and was featured in the 2004 film ‘What the (bleep) Do We Know!?’ Unfortunately this brain explorer died of cardiac arrest Sept 12, 2013.