Olivier Civelli

Olivier Civelli is a molecular biologist, a researcher in the field of neuropharmacology and an educator. He is the Eric L. and Lila D. Nelson Professor of Neuropharmacology at University of California, Irvine. He is also a Professor in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology at University of California, Irvine. He is most known for his work in advancing understanding of neurotransmission and his impact on drug discovery.

Civelli's research is focused on understanding brain function and the identification and study of novel molecules involved in brain activity. He was the first to decipher the structure of a dopamine receptor, the D2 receptor, central to neurobiology. He also uncovered the diversity of dopamine receptor family, identifying the D1 and D5 receptors and discovered the D4 receptor, of importance in psychiatry. Civelli then invented the strategy that uses orphan receptors to discover new neurotransmitters referred to as reverse pharmacology. Utilizing this strategy, he was the first to identify a novel neuropeptide, orphanin FQ (Nociceptin) in 1995, which he showed to regulate anxiety. He has written over 450 papers and holds 30 patents.

In 2004, ''Nature Drug Discovery'' recognized him as one of the world's 20 leading experts on GPCR research and ''The Scientist'' featured him in Hooked on a Hunt in 2008. In 2015, he was awarded the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative for Visiting Scientists. Provided by Wikipedia