Requiem for a Dream
The Pain-Addiction Loop: How Drugs Change the Brain
Join Dr. Zachariou for a closer look at the science of addiction to understand its causes, how it affects the brain, and learn about promising new findings.
About Requiem for a Dream
Darren Aronofsky follows up his acclaimed debut PI with this gritty, emotionally charged film set amidst the abandoned beaches and faded glory of Coney Island, Brooklyn. Based upon the novel by celebrated author Hubert Selby Jr., the story intricately links the lives of a lonely widowed mother (Academy Award® winner Ellen Burstyn), her son Harry (Jared Leto), his beautiful girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). Requiem for a Dream is a hypnotic tale of four human beings each pursuing a different vision of happiness. Even as everything begins to fall apart, they refuse to let go, plummeting with their dreams into a nightmarish, gut-wrenching free fall.
About Dr. Zachariou
Dr. Zachariou is the Edward Avedisian Professor and Chair of the department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Zachariou earned her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the Medical College of Georgia, in Augusta and completed postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Marina Picciotto at Yale university. She joined the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2012, serving as an Associate and then Full Professor in the department of Neuroscience and in 2023 she came to Boston to lead her current department.
Her laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms that underlie chronic pain and substance use disorders. Using a combination of systems pharmacology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetic approaches, her team seeks to identify the biological processes contributing to the maintenance of chronic pain, and to discover new targets for treating neuropathic pain and other long-term pain conditions. A central aim of her work is to define the cellular mechanisms that drive opioid physical dependence and analgesic tolerance, and to translate those insights into pharmacological interventions that make opioid analgesics safer. Dr. Zachariou’s work bridges basic science and clinical relevance with the goal of improving pain management and reducing harms from opioid therapies.
Dr. Zachariou has a longstanding interest in teaching and mentoring activities. She currently co-directs an NIH training program in Biomolecular Pharmacology, and is mentoring undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. She is a fellow of American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and serves on the editorial boards of the peer review journals Biological Psychiatry, Science Signaling, British Journal of Pharmacology, and Molecular Pharmacology.
