Nurulain T. Zaveri, PhD, is an internationally recognized medicinal chemist with longstanding background in the discovery of NOP receptor ligands in the opioid field. Dr. Zaveri is the founder and chief scientific officer of Astraea Therapeutics, LLC, Mountain View, CA, and has over 20 years of experience in the discovery and pre-clinical development of small-molecule therapeutics. She has been involved in discovery and development of NOP receptor-targeted compounds for several therapeutic applications, including neurodegenerative diseases. Several NOP ligands from her laboratory, including agonists and antagonists, have been investigated in models of chronic pain, drug addiction and Parkinson’s disease. Structure-activity relationship studies and lead optimization in her laboratory have led to the discovery of several NOP agonists and partial agonists, which are undergoing pre-clinical development for future clinical use.