Megan Matthews, assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a 2020 National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Avenir Awards in Genetics and Epigenetics of Substance Abuse.These awards exemplify NIDA’s commitment to supporting researchers who represent the future of addiction science. Awardees receive up to $300,000 per year for five years to support their projects. NIDA has two Avenir award programs, one for HIV/AIDS and another on the genetics and epigenetics of substance abuse.

Dr. Matthews’ PhD work led to an understanding for how iron oxygenases suppress hydroxylation to allow for halogenation and other outcomes important in natural product biosynthesis. Dr. Matthews investigated the prevalence of undiscovered protein-bound electrophiles and the (dys)functions that the unknown electrophiles impart, uncovering evidence for their involvement in cancer and diseases of the central nervous system. Her program is tracking down these and a host of other leads, which has led to new pharmacological tools for drug discovery for both new and known genetic and epigenetic drug targets.