Mary Jeanne Kreek, Methadone Developer, Dies at 84

A physician and neurobiologist at the Rockefeller University who specialized in addiction research, Kreek was best known for her work on developing the treatment for heroin addiction.

asher jones
| 2 min read
Mary Jeanne Kreek, heroin, addiction, methadone, drug addiction, The Rockefeller University,

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ABOVE: Mary Jeanne Kreek
ZACH VEILLEUX

Mary Jeanne Kreek, who studied addictive diseases at the Rockefeller University for more than 50 years, died on March 27 at the age of 84. Her work helped uncover the biology behind addiction and, most notably, led to the successful treatment of heroin addiction with methadone.

“She was a wonderful scientist who made groundbreaking contributions to the field of addiction medicine and to social equity in a way that was before her time,” Sarah Schlesinger, a cellular immunologist and physician at the Rockefeller University, tells The Scientist. Kreek championed the idea that people addicted to drugs should be treated with dignity, not stigmatized, Schlesinger adds. “[She saw] the problems of drug use as a genetic disease to which people had a predilection and needed to be treated for, long before that was a common idea. She was a real pioneer in that way.”

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  • asher jones

    Asher Jones

    Asher is a former editorial intern at The Scientist. She completed a PhD in entomology from Penn State University, and she was a 2020 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Voice of America. You can find more of her work here.

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