The Department announced today that the Division of Basic Research (DBR) has a new Chief, Dr. Jose Moron-Concepcion, who has held the position in an interim capacity since July 2019. Dr. Moron-Concepcion joined the department in 2015 and is currently a Professor of Anesthesiology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience.
Vice Chair for Research, Robert Gereau, PhD, said the leadership that Dr. Moron-Concepcion has demonstrated these past 12 months made it an easy decision.
“Jose has the full support of our department’s leadership. Over the course of the past year, Jose has shown that he is committed to the success of the DBR faculty, staff and trainees, and a vision for how to build a robust and sustainable basic research program. We are delighted that he has accepted this important leadership role.”
As Chief of the division, Dr. Moron-Concepcion will continue working alongside Dr. Gereau on strategic planning for the research division, and Dr. Ellen Lockhart, Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, on mentorship of the DBR faculty. He will also oversee division policies in addition to postdoc, graduate student, and resident training within the DBR labs.
Dr. Moron-Concepcion is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, where he leads a highly productive research program investigating the basic biological underpinnings of opioid addiction and the intersection with pain.
He has published more than 45 peer reviewed papers and is regularly invited to speak all over the world on his work. Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the NIH, invited him to participate in one of three high-level meetings that brought together representatives from the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA, and academia to discuss the neurobiology of pain and development of non-opioid analgesics. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences committee that created a report for the FDA on Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic and updated the Institute of Medicine on this topic.
In June, he was selected to serve on the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC), a federal advisory committee created by the Department of Health and Human Services to enhance pain research efforts and promote collaboration across the government.
Dr. Moron-Concepcion is extraordinarily qualified to lead the DBR and ensure that its long-standing excellence in knowledge generation and support for its faculty, trainees, and staff are upheld.