[EPISODE 23] Rick Briscoe Talks Neuroscience, Safety Pharmacology, and Scuba Diving!

On this episode of Molecular Moments, Chad Briscoe talks with his brother, Rick Briscoe, Senior VP of Safety Assessment and Research Operations at Cerevel Therapeutics.

Rick talks with Chad about how he found his love of the sciences through a scuba diving class in high school, which sparked his interest in biology and led him to take a neuroscience class during his freshman year of college. Rick goes on to share how working at a transitional facility for those struggling with chronic mental illnesses and observing how medication impacted patients’ lives inspired him to go into neuroscience drug development. They also discuss safety pharmacology at Merck, challenges in the neuroscience space, and improvements to the way they modulate at Cerevel for treatments with better results and fewer side effects. They also talk about how drugs get their names, working with CROs, mentoring future scientists through scientific societies, and their dirtiest jobs.