Two of his mentors (Kandel and Greengard) received in 2000 the Nobel Prize for their contributions to medicine.
After working at the INSERM in Paris (1990–1995) and at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla (1995–1998) with Nobel Prize winner Gerald Edelman, he joined the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, where he is now Louise Turner Arnold Chair in Neurosciences and Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry.
He is also founding director of the department of Drug Discovery and Development (D3) at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genova, Italy.
Piomelli has made important contributions to the understanding of lipid mediator function in the brain and nervous system.
He elucidated the biochemical pathways involved in the formation and deactivation of the lipid-derived endocannabinoids – anandamide[1] and 2-arachidonoylglycerol[2] – and uncovered various physiological roles played by these compounds.