Jon Levine (neuroscientist)

Jon David Levine is an American neuroscientist known for his research on pain and analgesia, particularly in the field of placebo studies.[1] He is a professor of Medicine, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Jon D. Levine
Born
Jon David Levine
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
Yale University
University of California, San Francisco
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience
InstitutionsUniversity of California, San Francisco
ThesisNeural Control of Flight in Wild Type and Mutant Drosophila Melanogaster (1972)
Notable studentsFabrizio Benedetti
InfluencesHoward Fields
Jack Stobo

Biography

Levine received his bachelor's degree in biophysics from the University of Michigan in 1966, a PhD in neuroscience from Yale University in 1972, and an MD degree from UCSF in 1978. He subsequently trained under Jack Stobo and Henry Bourne. He joined the UCSF faculty in 1987, and has been a professor of Medicine, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Neuroscience there since 1993.[1][2]

Research

Levine's research focuses on pain and analgesia, such as the mechanism of the placebo effect in relieving pain. In 1978, he published an influential study showing that placebo analgesia could be blocked by the opioid antagonist naloxone.[3][4] According to Fabrizio Benedetti (one of Levine's students),[5] this study represents the point when "the biology of placebo was born".[6] He has also published research showing that kappa agonist painkillers are more effective for women than for men.[7][8][9] He has also conducted studies on rats with experimentally induced arthritis, showing that beta-2 antagonists can reduce joint damage in these rats. This work has also shown that these antagonists also block receptors on cells that allow noradrenalin to enter them.[10] In addition, he has researched the role of inflammation in arthritis, which, he has found, can be either positive or negative.[11]

References
  1. "EPS 2013 Faculty". europeanpainschool.eu. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  2. "John Levine Biography" (PDF).
  3. Levine, JD; Gordon, NC; Fields, HL (23 September 1978). "The mechanism of placebo analgesia". Lancet. 2 (8091): 654–7. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(78)92762-9. PMID 80579. S2CID 45403755.
  4. Brody, Jane E. (1979-04-03). "Placebos Work, but Survey Shows Widespread Misuse". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  5. Specter, Michael (12 December 2011). "The Power of Nothing". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  6. Marchant, Jo (2016-07-14). "Placebos: Honest fakery". Nature. 535 (7611): S14–S15. Bibcode:2016Natur.535S..14M. doi:10.1038/535S14a. PMID 27410526.
  7. Angier, Natalie (10 November 1996). "Yours, Mine And Ows". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  8. Angier, Natalie (2003-09-22). "Tough Guys, Or Big Babies? How Real Men Deal With Pain". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  9. Melton, Lisa (19 January 2002). "His pain, her pain". New Scientist. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  10. Kotulak, Ronald (9 October 1988). "The Mouths Of Babes". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  11. Wasowicz, Linda (22 February 1994). "Findings may lead to non-toxic arthritis drugs". UPI. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
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