NINDS – 

Smriti Iyengar, Ph.D., is Program Director for the newly formed Preclinical Screening Platform for Pain (PSPP) program, in the Division of Translational Research, NINDS.  She is an adjunct Senior Research Professor in the Department of Anesthesia, and in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Indiana University School of Medicine. She was formerly at Eli Lilly and Company, and prior to that at G.D. Searle and Company, Schering-Plough Inc. and Ciba Geigy.  She is a neuroscientist with extensive research experience focused on neuro-disorders including pain and headache.  Her drug discovery expertise includes target, lead and clinical candidate identification and characterization as well as translational and clinical development, regulatory strategy, launch and commercialization. Her postdoctoral training was at Rutgers University as a Charles and Johanna Busch Fellow in the Dept. of Physiology and Neuroscience, with her research focused on central regulation of opioid function and central regulation of neuroendocrine function including the HPA axis and stress. She received her Ph.D. from M.S. University of Baroda, India, where she worked on the neurochemical basis of behavior in the developing brain.