Nicole Weiss and Jeffrey Bratberg appointed to lead Center of Biomedical Research Excellence on Opioids and Overdose

Two University of Rhode Island professors will work to support research to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic throughout the region as the new leaders of the Community-engaged Research Core of Rhode Island Hospital’s Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) on Opioids and Overdose.

URI psychology Associate Professor Nicole Weiss and pharmacy Clinical Professor Jeffrey Bratberg were recently named director and deputy director of the organization, which brings together leaders from institutions across Rhode Island to support the research needed to treat and prevent opioid misuse and overdose. The goal of the Community Engaged Research Core is to build research infrastructure and provide services to early-stage investigators to support the recruitment and retention of vulnerable and underserved individuals as research participants. The core also aims to promote the importance of community engagement with the goal of developing more robust, rigorous, and competitive research projects. 

Weiss and Bratberg will work with COBRE Director of Community Engagement Michelle McKenzie on the overall operation and fiscal management of the Community Engaged Research Core; provide administrative and financial support to COBRE investigators; develop a mentoring program to support COBRE project leaders in achieving research independence; and generally help establish research processes that lead to comprehensive outcomes and involve those individuals the research aims to impact.

“People with lived experiences have historically been excluded from the research process,” Weiss said. “Amplifying the voices of people with lived and living experiences in research benefits both the researchers—by increasing the validity and relevance of the final product—and the community—by giving them say over decisions that impact them.”

Both Weiss and Bratberg have a history of working with substance use disorders, especially involving opioids. Weiss, director of the STRESS Lab in the Department of Psychology, focuses on the co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder. Her basic research leverages intensive longitudinal data—such as ecological momentary assessment and wearable biosensors—to evaluate dynamic and idiographic processes underlying PTSD symptoms and substance use over time. In her most recent project, funded by a $5.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Weiss is developing a mobile app specifically designed to help continue treatment for individuals who have PTSD and are transitioning out of residential opioid use disorder treatment.

Bratberg studies the essential and emerging roles community pharmacists play regarding opioid overdose, harm reduction, and opioid use disorders. He works to advocate for pharmacists’ expanded roles in medication access, public health promotion, and policy change through his professorship and clinical practice site at the Rhode Island Department of Health. Funded by a grant from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts, Bratberg is working to initiate two novel approaches to providing medications for opioid use disorder via community pharmacies, particularly in areas where physician prescribers are limited. He recently co-authored a national report calling on the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to simplify regulations to allow pharmacies to dispense methadone to people seeking treatment for opioid use disorder.