Profile Category: Opioid Researchers

Dr. Clarke is the director of Pain Services and the medical director of the Pain Research Unit at the Toronto General Hospital. He is appointed to the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto and is a graduate of the Royal College Clinician Scientist Program. His research interests include identifying novel acute pain treatments following major surgery, identifying the factors involved in the transition of acute postsurgical pain to chronic pain, studying the genetics of acute and chronic pain after surgery, and identifying risk factors associated with continued opioid use and poor health-related quality of life after major
surgery. In 2016, Dr. Clarke was given a career award by the Canadian Pain Society for his novel Transitional Pain Program.

Dr. Le Foll is a Clinician Scientist specializing in drug addiction. He is Head of the Translational Addiction Research Laboratory in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, and Medical Head of the Addiction Medicine Service at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The service is providing treatment to around 4,000 new patients a year through an interdisciplinary team. He is professor at the University of Toronto in the Departments of Family and Community Medicine, Pharmacology, Psychiatry, and Institute of Medical Sciences. Dr. Le Foll received specialized training in drug addiction and behavioural and cognitive therapy at Paris University in France. He has written treatment guidelines and has been coordinator of clinical trials. In his research, he has used various approaches such as preclinical models, genetic and brain imaging.

Dr. Sellers is an internationally recognized authority on clinical psychopharmacology, pharmacogenetics, abuse liability assessment, and substance abuse, having published more than 650 papers. His focus includes accelerating early stage drug development through new methods, optimizing strategies to assess abuse potential of new and re-formulated drugs. He has worked with academic institutions, hospitals, government agencies, investors and biopharmaceutical and device companies. He was the co-founder of DecisionLine Clinical Research, a successful translational clinical research company. Dr. Sellers was Vice-President and Director at Clinical Institute of the Addiction Research Foundation, one of the world’s largest and best-known research and treatment organizations in the addiction field. He recently chaired the Scientific Advisory Panel on Opiate Analgesic Abuse for the Therapeutic Products Directorate, Health Canada.