Cody J. Wenthur, PharmaD, Ph.D.

Dr. Cody J. Wenthur is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the Founding Director of the Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences - Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation program at the University School of Pharmacy. He pursues the development and application of chemical and biological tools that can uncover shared molecular deficits in stress management and reward function across a spectrum of traditionally defined psychiatric illnesses. Areas of particular interest include the use psychedelics and pro-neuroplastic interventions to support non-drug therapies, development of antibody-based approaches to understand and mitigate the toxic and damaging effects of synthetic drugs of abuse, and expanding access to effective medication-based interventions for the treatment of addiction and overdose.

The Wenthur Laboratory’s mission is to improve mental healthcare through the development of new therapeutic treatment approaches-specifically those that include opioids, dissociative-hypnotics, psychedelics, and cannabinoids. We are motivated by the staggeringly high reported rates of depression, anxiety, overdose, and suicide, inadequate to treatment, and the failure of current therapeutic models to meaningfully improve the daily life of those dearly need it.