Awards

National Academies - 2018

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Titled Professor - 2010 - 2023

Linda and Jack Gill Chair of Neuroscience

About Andrea Hohmann

Andrea Hohmann is a Linda and Jack Gill Chair and Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. She received her Sc.B. (1988), Sc.M. (1993) and Ph.D. (1996) from Brown University. Her NIH-funded research program focuses on understanding cannabinoid mechanisms for pain suppression using rodent models. Dr. Hohmann completed her Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. J. Michael Walker where her work first demonstrated that cannabinoids suppress activity in nociceptive neurons. Dr. Hohmann trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Miles Herkenham (NIMH) in the Section on Functional Neuroanatomy at the National Institute of Mental Health. Here, her work mapped locations of cannabinoid receptors in sensory pathways and identified phenotypes of cells bearing cannabinoid receptors.

She served as a staff scientist in Dr. M.A. Ruda's laboratory in the Pain and Neurosensory Mechanisms Branch of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Her laboratory was the first to demonstrate that activation of cannabinoid CB2 receptors suppresses the processing of nociceptive information. Her laboratory also demonstrated that endogenous cannabis-like substances are mobilized in the brain to produce adaptive changes in pain responsiveness, a phenomenon known as stress-induced analgesia. This work identified the enzyme monoacylglycerol lipase as a previously unrecognized analgesic target. She was promoted to the rank of Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Georgia in 2009 and joined the faculty at Indiana University in 2010. She received the Young Investigator Award (2007) from the International Cannabinoid Research Society and the Creative Research Medal (2006) and William A. Owens Research Awards (2010) from the University of Georgia Research Foundation.