Engineering Pain Relief without Opioids

By Brittany E. Givens Rassoolkhani (Brittany Givens) 
PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Iowa, 2019
2024 SSMN Research Seed Grant Recipient

Imagine a world where relief for severe pain doesn’t require opioid prescriptions. 

Why is this important? Because, in 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported over 105,000 opioid-related deaths in the United States.

For most people, their first time using opioids is from a doctor’s prescription. But if they become addicted before their prescription runs out, they often seek illegal sources for opioids. Sadly, this often leads to overdose and death. What is even more concerning is that women develop opioid addictions faster than men. This is true at lower doses of pain medication or for a shorter time on pain medication. I’m excited to share my journey researching sustained-release analgesics — a potential game-changer in the fight against opioid dependence.

I am an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Kentucky. I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Iowa as a Sloan Scholar, where I researched several sustained-release drug delivery systems that have informed my work today.

I started this work when I met Dr. Nikita Gupta at a Women In Medicine and Science (WIMS) mixer at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Gupta has a B.S. in biomedical engineering and is an associate professor in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Kentucky. We connected with our mutual expertise and backgrounds — mine in using biomaterials for sustained-release drugs, and hers in reducing opioid prescriptions.

Since joining forces, Dr. Gupta and I have co-mentored, along with Dr. J. Zach Hilt, six undergraduate students and three graduate students on the project and have received a small research grant (R03) from the National Institutes of Health to try a new material to improve our system. With funds from SSMN, we were also able to send one of these undergraduate students to the National Council for Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Outside of the lab, I share my passion for "biomaterials" (materials used in the body) and drug delivery. I do this by advising the student chapter of the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) at the University of Kentucky and by directing the Biopharmaceutical Engineering Certificate for Chemical Engineering Majors. Every day, I get to do work I'm passionate about, and the support from the Sloan Foundation—both as a student and a professor—has given me the freedom to do this. Training and guiding students and scientists is a highlight of my career, as is finding solutions to important healthcare challenges.

Dr. Givens received an SSMN Seed Grant in 2024 for her research, titled "Revolutionizing post-operative pain relief with long-term analgesics." She has been an assistant professor since 2020. Visit the Givens Laboratory website to learn more about her work.