[2] Author of more than 500 published papers, Skolnick's most notable accomplishments include elucidating the role of the NMDA system in depression therapeutics,[3] demonstrating the existence of endogenous benzodiazepine receptor ligands,[4] and spearheading the National Institute on Drug Abuse's partnership to develop a naloxone atomizer for reversal of acute opioid overdose.
[3] In 1996, Skolnick and one of his postdoctoral students, Anthony Basile, developed the hypothesis that off-site activity of aminoglycoside antibiotics, which also have the potential to land on the NMDA receptor, might be responsible for the drugs' undesirable ototoxic side-effects.
[14] After his tenure at DOV, Skolnick returned to the NIH in 2010, this time as the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences (DTMC), which focuses largely on pharmacological therapies for addiction.
Most notably, Skolnick's time at NIDA saw the FDA approval and deployment of the Narcan nasal spray tool, an easy-to-use opioid overdose reversal device developed in partnership with Lightlake Therapeutics.
Narcan nasal spray is intended for distribution to the general public,[15] allowing the friends or family of an overdose victim to counteract the drug's effects almost immediately, without waiting for emergency response personnel to arrive.