Sombers Lab

05/22/2026

Heck yassssss!!!! We got another journal cover!!! Beautiful work by Jenna Berger Martyr and Dylan Denison deserves the spotlight!!! 💪💪💪

ACS Chemical Neuroscience selected artwork from Dr. Leslie Sombers’ latest publication to appear on the journal’s cover in May 2026.

05/11/2026

Hot new paper out!!! 🔥 This one describes the latest in our relentless quest to monitor and understand the enkephalins.....

This study was led by Jenna Berger Martyr and Dylan Denison working in collaboration with the lab at Illinois. It combines electrochemical monitoring of exocytosis with mass spectrometry to characterize the temporal complexity and chemical diversity of peptide participants in opioid signaling. Go team!!! 💪💪💪

Despite longstanding recognition that the adrenal medulla is a major source of both catecholamines and opioid peptides, direct measurements of opioid peptide release kinetics─and characterization of the full complexity of the peptidergic forms released─remain under studied. Here, this gap is add...

05/06/2026

In loving memory of my long-time mentor and dear friend, Howard Fields, MD PHD, Professor of Neurology and Physiology at UCSF, who passed away on May 1. Howard was a pioneer in the pain research field, who discovered and characterized the inhibitory and excitatory descending brainstem mechanisms that regulate pain. His work revolutionized our understanding of endogenous opioid peptide contributions to pain processing. Howard was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Science, and he was a GREAT person whose joy and curiosity inspired many. He is deeply missed – 💔💔💔

05/05/2026

Watch out, world, her comes Kayleigh! Kayleigh Linder won a generous travel fellowship from UF CARE (Center for Addiction Research and Education)! This award will support her travel to Amsterdam this fall to present her work on the co-detection of dopamine and glutamate at the International Symposium for Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience. 💪💪💪

04/28/2026

Guess who passed her qualifying exam today to officially became a UF College of Pharmacy doctoral candidate.... this girl!!! 👇👇👇Congratulations Kayleigh Linder! 💪💪💪

04/15/2026

The 2026 UF CARE Symposium (Center for Addiction Research and Education) was excellent! Kalynn Turner is on 🔥🔥🔥!!! Another poster award, this time for work done with Jenna Berger Martyr, Jovica Todorov , and the Sweedler Lab at the University of Illinois. The project is focused on the co-detection of dopamine and enkephalin, an endogenous opioid peptide. CRUSHING IT!!!! Couldn't be more proud of this team.

04/08/2026

BOOM! Kalynn Turner and Kayleigh Linder won second and third place in UFs Grad Student Research Day!! These ladies are crushing it!! So much winning!!! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻🔥🔥🔥

04/01/2026

Best of luck to Jovica Todorov, who is beginning a new position with Shelley Minteer's lab at Missouri S&T. We miss him already, and can't wait to see what he accomplishes in this new role! Go Jovica!!

03/17/2026

is a wrap! Great talks and lots of shenanigans in San Antonio. And.. Remember the Alamo!! 🤠 Kayleigh Linder Kalynn Turner Jovica Todorov

03/10/2026

WHOO HOOO!!! We are having a great week at PittCon in San Antonio and Kayleigh Linder won a SEAC travel award - her work on detecting glutamate is 🔥🔥🔥 !!!!