
Cody J. Wenthur has been a member of the University of Wisconsin – Madison faculty in the School of Pharmacy since 2018. He previously received his Pharm.D from Purdue University in 2011, Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2015, and undertook a postdoctoral research fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute – La Jolla. Dr. Wenthur’s research focuses on improvement of the treatment landscape for drug abuse and mental illnesses through the discovery and application of novel biological and chemical tools that modify maladaptive reward learning. His work and contributions to this field have been published in leading scientific journals, such as Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as internationally recognized news sources, such as The Economist. Ongoing research efforts in support of this goal include a combination of pre-clinical and clinical programs to generate and apply immunotherapeutic (vaccine) and pro-neuroplastic (psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy) approaches for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses; dissemination of expert knowledge regarding the actions of illicit and therapeutic psychoactive substances to student, expert, and lay audiences; advancing pharmacy practice through exploration of new pharmacy services for treating substance use disorders; and advocating for policy and procedural changes that will improve equality in access to care and health outcomes for common psychiatric conditions. More information about the Wenthur lab can be found here.