Chasing the Next Discovery: Jarret Weinrich, PhD, Advances New Approaches to Pain and Anesthesia

Jarret Weinrich, PhD, has built his scientific career around questions at the intersection of neuroscience, pain, and drug discovery. An Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, Weinrich combines brain imaging, computational analysis, and pharmacology to investigate how the nervous system processes pain–and to develop new approaches for treating it.

“I’m always looking toward the next, new thing, and how to shepherd it into existence,” said Weinrich. “That’s the exciting part.”

His path to pain and anesthesia research was similarly driven by a willingness to change direction. After graduating from the University of Miami with a double major in neuroscience and chemistry, Weinrich spent a year at the NASA Ames Research Center working on a project to develop carbon nanotubes as ultrasensitive DNA detectors. The repetitive nature of the work convinced him that he wanted to return to academic research, where he could pursue new scientific questions.

He went on to earn a PhD in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology from Weill Cornell Graduate School. His doctoral research examined how neurons recognize one another and establish synaptic connections in the spinal cord, with a particular focus on how these processes are altered in dystonia, a neurological movement disorder characterized by involuntary and often painful muscle contractions.

“Specifically, I studied the molecular recognition processes that allow two neurons to identify each other and form a connection, and how those processes are altered in dystonia,” Weinrich said.

That research helped produce the first anatomical description of a spinal circuit involved in dystonia and established a foundation for Weinrich’s subsequent work in neural imaging and computational analysis.

After completing his doctorate, Weinrich contacted Dr. Allan Basbaum, Professor and Chair of the Department of Anatomy, with the idea of continuing to investigate dystonia and pain. Basbaum instead encouraged him to turn his attention to the brain. His laboratory had recently begun a brain-imaging project and needed expertise in processing and analyzing large imaging datasets.

Weinrich’s background proved well-suited to the challenge. “My PhD work was heavily focused on imaging and computational image analysis–plus, I could code,” he said. “I couldn’t say no to such an exciting new endeavor.”

Seeing Pain in the Brain

As Weinrich expanded his experimental expertise, he began working with miniature microscopes that can be mounted on mice to record neuronal activity while the animals move freely.

“We would introduce a fluorescent indicator into the neurons that lights up when they fire,” Weinrich said. “Because the microscope is so small, the mice can move around freely while we see what is happening in their brains.”

Using this technology, Weinrich studied how the brain responds to painful stimuli and how those responses change following administration of analgesic drugs. During those experiments, he observed something that would redirect his research: a brain region involved in pain processing became largely inactive under anesthesia. 

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The finding prompted Weinrich to investigate more closely how anesthetic drugs alter brain function. His subsequent work led him to examine an important distinction between anesthesia and analgesia. General anesthetics can produce unconsciousness and amnesia, but those effects do not necessarily mean that nociceptive signals–the neural signals associated with potentially damaging stimuli–are eliminated.

That distinction raised new questions about how pain-related information may be processed during surgery and how clinicians might better understand and prevent pain under anesthesia.

From Understanding Drugs to Creating Them

Weinrich’s postdoctoral research included investigating the neural mechanisms underlying the analgesic effects of nitrous oxide. At the same time, he began what was initially a smaller side project: developing new anesthetic compounds.

The project eventually became a major focus of his laboratory.

Weinrich and his colleagues developed a new anesthetic candidate called Nidradine, named for Nidra Devi, the Hindu goddess associated with sleep. The team is now working toward the next stages of development, with the goal of advancing the compound toward clinical trials.

The drug-development work also attracted the attention of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which awarded the research team a $25 million grant for a broader effort to develop new general anesthetics. The project aims to identify therapies that could potentially be used to manage acute pain in battlefield settings as well as chronic pain experienced by veterans.

The scale of the project requires Weinrich to adapt quickly. Drug discovery involves screening and evaluating large numbers of potential compounds, coordinating multiple scientific disciplines, and ultimately translating laboratory findings into therapies that can be tested in humans.

“I’m new to drug discovery, and the sheer volume of this research–the scale that we’re doing it on–is enormous,” Weinrich said.

Scientific discovery is only one component of that challenge. New drugs must also demonstrate safety and efficacy, move successfully through clinical development and ultimately gain the confidence of clinicians. For Weinrich, the long-term objective extends beyond creating experimental compounds to developing therapies that can be used in both specialized settings and routine clinical care.

Staying Focused While Pursuing Discovery

The demands of a large, goal-oriented research program have also influenced how Weinrich approaches science.

“As a scientist, I chase butterflies, and that’s what I want to do all day,” he said. “But with this DARPA project, I have to be focused, which I find actually makes me a much better scientist.”

That combination of curiosity and discipline informs his future plans. Rather than committing himself to a single research question indefinitely, Weinrich is interested in pursuing scientific problems where his work can have meaningful impact–and in translating discoveries into tangible tools or therapies.

It is also the perspective he shares with residents and fellows considering careers in academic research. Scientific careers require persistence, he said, but persistence should be accompanied by a willingness to continually assess the value and utility of the work.

His advice is to remain committed to finding the most accurate answer, even when the evidence requires abandoning a hypothesis or project that has consumed considerable time and effort.

“Try to get the closest you can to the truth and make an impact,” Weinrich said, “even if it means giving up something you’ve been working on for a long time.”

For Weinrich, the next scientific question is rarely far away. Whether examining how anesthetics reshape neural activity or working to develop entirely new classes of drugs, his research continues to center on the same fundamental goal: understanding the nervous system well enough to translate discovery into better approaches to pain and anesthesia.