A UK assistant professor received a $1.17 million, two-year research grant from federal stimulus money to better understand why a particular opioid drug is abused less than others of the same type.

William Stoops, an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Science and the UK Center for Drug and Alcohol Research, will focus his research on the pharmacological effects of tramadol, a synthetic opioid drug.

Stoops said by blocking certain receptors in the brain, he hopes to better understand why tramadol appears to have less potential for abuse than other analgesics derived from opium alkaloids including morphine, narcotine and codeine.

Prescription opioid abuse is something Stoops called a “growing problem in Kentucky.”

The first research projects will begin in early September, Stoops said.

He originally applied for the grant through the National Institute on Drug Abuse as a four-year project but the organization determined it could be completed in two years.

After the grant was modified for a two-year project, the National Institutes of Health decided to spend some of the funds from the stimulus package they received.

Stoops said he plans to be mindful of the overall goal of the stimulus funds given to the National Institutes of Health when conducting his research.

“(The overall goal) basically is to answer pressing questions about public health and to keep or put people in good jobs,” Stoops said.

Other members of UK faculty will be working on the project including Michelle Lofwall, Jeffrey Tuttle and Paul Glaser from the Department of Psychiatry and Sharon Walsh and Craig Rush from the Department of Behavioral Science.

The stimulus funds will also allow for a few new hires but no decisions on who or how many people have been made yet, Stoops said.