2012 年，随着阿片类药物危机中致死主因从处方药片转向海洛因，Laura Bohn 被委以寻找更安全止痛药物的任务。
In 2012, as the driver of deaths in the opioid crisis began moving from prescription pills to heroin, Laura Bohn was tasked with finding safer drugs to manage pain.
在国家药物滥用研究所的资助下，她和其他科学家于 2017 年在科学期刊《细胞》上披露，包括一种名为 SR-17018 的特别有希望的化合物在内的几种化合物，能在小鼠身上缓解疼痛，而不引起呼吸抑制。这是一件大事，因为呼吸抑制通常是阿片类药物使用者停止呼吸并死亡的原因。
Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2017 she and other scientists revealed in the science journal Cell that several compounds—including a particularly promising one called SR-17018—could relieve pain in mice without causing respiratory depression. That’s a big deal, because respiratory depression is typically what causes people using opioids to stop breathing and die.
南佛罗里达大学健康中心研究高级副总裁 Bohn 表示，她的团队已为 SR-17018 申请了专利。他们随后发现，使用该化学物质的小鼠不会对其产生高耐受性，且已对吗啡（一种强效阿片类药物）产生依赖的小鼠，服用 SR-17018 后能重置耐受性，且不必忍受痛苦的戒断症状。
Bohn, senior associate vice president of research at University of South Florida Health, says her team filed a patent on SR-17018. They went on to discover that mice using the chemical did not develop a high tolerance for it and that mice already dependent on morphine—a powerful opioid—could consume SR-17018 to reset their tolerance without suffering from painful withdrawal symptoms.