Within the broad scope of the pharmaceutical sciences there are many research possibilities. Below is a Topical Index of research specialties and investigators in the College of Pharmacy.

Cancer

Kristy M. Ainslie: Dr. Ainslie’s research objectives focus on the integration of micro/nanotechnology and microfabrication therapeutics towards developing applied and translational therapies. Her areas of direct application include but are not limited to the fields of drug delivery and applied immunology.

Jessie Lai-Sim Au: pharmacodynamics of anticancer and anti-AIDS drugs in cultured cells, tissues, animals and patients; with an emphasis on treatment of bladder, head and neck, prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer.

Robert Brueggemeier: the role of steroids in the growth of breast cancer and in the development of drugs that interfere with hormone action / aromatase inhibitors.

Kenneth K. Chan applications of stable isotopes in pharmacokinetics, metabolism and mechanism of action; alkylating agents / cancer chemotherapy and drug development / liposome drug formulation / analytical method development / mass spectrometry.

Ching-Shih Chen: mechanism-based design of novel therapeutic agents that selectively target apoptosis machinery in cancer cells at cellular or epigenetic levels.

Robert W. Curley, Jr.: the use of vitamin A and its retinoid analogues as anticancer agents / stereoselective syntheses of stable isotope-labeled amino acids and NMR studies of drug receptor interactions / carotenoid cleavage products and metabolites and their biological importance.

James T. Dalton: ligand binding domains of androgen, glucocorticoid, progesterone, and estrogen receptors.

George Hinkle: nuclear pharmacy with emphasis on the medical use of radionuclides and radiolabeled antibodies.

Dale Hoyt: DNA damage, repair and inflammatory signaling in endothelial cells

Robert J. Lee: Delivery of anticancer agents via targeted liposomes or nanoparticles. Therapeutic delivery of genes, antisense oligonucleotides, CpG oligos, siRNA, miRNA, and anti-miRs. Receptor targeted bioconjugates for cancer therapy. Nanomedicines for cancer and leukemia therapy. Targeted delivery to AML, CLL, HCC, breast, GBM, etc. Translational research.

Chenglong Li: Structure-based and computer-aided drug design and discovery (SBDD/CADD), molecular docking, molecular dynamics, computational chemistry, X-ray protein crystallography, Anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and anti-infectious molecular design and simulation.

Mitch Phelps: Pre-clinical and clinical pharmacokinetics of anti-cancer agents and the role of polymorphisms in transporters and metabolizing enzymes in drug disposition and clinical outcomes.

Pui-Kai (Tom) Li: drug development (steroid sulfatase inhibitors) for the treatment of breast cancer / designing melatonin analogs to elucidate the physiological roles of melatonin in humans.

Thomas D. Schmittgen: development of new cancer therapies or diagnostics, gene expression, targeted drug delivery for cancer therapy. Areas of study include: 1) development of RNA aptamers as targeting agents for prostate and breast cancer; 2) quantitative PCR as a tool to study gene expression in cancerous and noncancerous tissues; 3) role of small, noncoding (i.e. micro RNAs) in cancer development.

Werner Tjarks: Nucleosides for anticancer- and antiviral therapy

M. Guillaume Wientjes: pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs for bladder and prostate cancer in patients, animals, and cell culture / use of regional and targeted drug delivery.

 

Cardiovascular

Kristy M. Ainslie: Dr. Ainslie’s research objectives focus on the integration of micro/nanotechnology and microfabrication therapeutics towards developing applied and translational therapies. Her areas of direct application include but are not limited to the fields of drug delivery and applied immunology.

John A. Bauer: the roles and mechanisms of nitric oxide control in disease, especailly cardiovascular disease / cardiovascular complications assoicated with congestive heart failure, diabetes, and AIDS / nitric oxide control in urological complications of diabetes.

Cynthia A. Carnes: cardiovascular pharmacology / electrophysiological effects of drugs that act on the heart.

James D. Coyle: drug therapy in patients with kidney disease, including those on dialysis. His goal is to help patients and their healthcare providers achieve targeted therapeutic outcomes using a comprehensive pharmacotherapeutic approach, including application of clinical pharmacokinetic and dynamic principles. Treatment of hypertension in renal failure patients is of particular interest.

Terry Elton: Investigates miRNA expression and aberrant gene regulation in various cardiovascular diseases.

Dale Hoyt: DNA damage, repair and inflammatory signaling in endothelial cells

Keli Hu: Regulation of ion channels and their implications in cardiovascular diseases.

Veronique LaCombe: the goals of Dr. LaCombe's NIH-funded research program are to study glucose metabolism and fuel selection in striated muscles and to better understand the pathogenesis of cardiovascular complications of metabolic diseases, using an integrative and translational approach.

Drug Delivery

Kristy M. Ainslie: Dr. Ainslie’s research objectives focus on the integration of micro/nanotechnology and microfabrication therapeutics towards developing applied and translational therapies. Her areas of direct application include but are not limited to the fields of drug delivery and applied immunology.

Robert J. Lee: Delivery of anticancer agents via targeted liposomes or nanoparticles. Therapeutic delivery of genes, antisense oligonucleotides, CpG oligos, siRNA, miRNA, and anti-miRs. Receptor targeted bioconjugates for cancer therapy. Nanomedicines for cancer and leukemia therapy. Targeted delivery to AML, CLL, HCC, breast, GBM, etc. Translational research.

Sylvan G. Frank: design and evaluation of drug delivery systems, with an emphasis on emulsions, liposomes, and liquid crystals / micelle stability and solubilization, small-particle formation and microencapsulation, iontophoresis, percolation theory, and fractal geometry.

William L. Hayton: (Professor Emeritus) minimizing environment toxicity through understanding pharmacokinetics and metabolism of aquatic species.

Daren L. Knoell studies the lung microenvironment with a particular emphasis on host response during inflammatory stress. Investigations incorporate human lung epithelial cell culture, animal and human studies and aspects of immunology as well as cellular and molecular biology. The most current studies aim to improve our understanding of emphysema and fibrosis pathogenesis.

Mitch Phelps: Pre-clinical and clinical pharmacokinetics of anti-cancer agents and the role of polymorphisms in transporters and metabolizing enzymes in drug disposition and clinical outcomes.

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Health-System Pharmacy

Jay M. Mirtallo: safety and efficacy of parenteral nutrition, parenteral nutrition in obesity, outcomes and issues with long-term parenteral nutrition, innovative health-system pharmacy programs.

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Natural Products and Pharmacognosy

Esperanza J. Carcache de Blanco dietary supplements, traditional medicine, natural products drug discovery.

James R. Fuchs: major areas of emphasis of our lab are in the preparation of novel antibiotics and anticancer agents with unique or interesting mechanisms of action through selective inhibition of a specific protein or enzyme target. We will utilize synthetic methods to prepare bioactive natural products and their analogues to gain insight into the structure-activity relationships of ligand/receptor systems, and investigate biosynthetic pathways.

A. Douglas Kinghorn: research interests include the discovery of natural product lead compounds from tropical rainforest plants, particularly those with potential anticancer, cancer chemopreventive, and oral antimicrobial activity. He is also interested in the scientific evaluation of botanical dietary supplements and the development of potently sweet substances of natural origin.

Larry W. Robertson: fermentation and microbial products, microbiological transformations of drugs, antibiotics, drug metabolism, metabolism and biological activities of cannabinoids.

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Neuropharmacology

Kari Hoyt: The molecular mechanisms underlying the loss of neurons in neurodegenerative diseases.

James M. McAuley specializes in drugs used to treat epilepsy. He is also interested in pharmacokinetics and phamacodynamics of centrally acting rugs and influence of gender and hormones on drug response.

Dennis B. McKay: The primary focus of our laboratory is on drug discovery. Our target for drug discovery is the nicotinic receptor. Nicotinic receptors and their many subtypes are linked to a number of neurological diseases such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Alzheimer's disease, Tourette's syndrome, Parkinson's disease, autism, and some types of epilepsy.

Popat N. Patil: (Professor Emeritus) autonomic nervous system pharmacology with emphasis on steric aspects of drug receptor interactions, desensitization, morphology of sensory and synaptic receptors / ocular pharmacology, and drug melanin interactions.

Lane J. Wallace: mechanisms by which abused drugs change the brain and its response to drugs / neurodegenerative diseases / bladder dysfunction in diabetes.

Anthony P. Young: molecular and cellular pharmacology / regulation of glutamine synthetase gene expression during retinal development, glucocorticoid-mediated muscle atrophy, and nitric oxide synthase gene expression.

Pharmacodynamics

Jessie Lai-Sim Au: pharmacodynamics of anticancer and anti-AIDS drugs in cultured cells, tissues, animals and patients; with an emphasis on treatment of bladder, head and neck, prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer.

John A. Bauer: the roles and mechanisms of nitric oxide control in disease, especailly cardiovascular disease / cardiovascular complications assoicated with congestive heart failure, diabetes, and AIDS / nitric oxide control in urological complications of diabetes.

James T. Dalton: ligand binding domains of androgen, glucocorticoid, progesterone, and estrogen receptors.

Mitch Phelps: Pre-clinical and clinical pharmacokinetics of anti-cancer agents and the role of polymorphisms in transporters and metabolizing enzymes in drug disposition and clinical outcomes.

Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes

Sheryl L. Szeinbach: distribution of pharmaceutical products and services / service delivery decision-making processes that involve utility analysis (pharmacoeconomics) and risk assessment / organizational structure, automation, and information technology.

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Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy

Robert Brueggemeier: the role of steroids in the growth of breast cancer / development of drugs that interfere with hormone action, with a major focus on aromatase inhibitors.

Ching-Shih Chen: mechanism-based design of novel therapeutic agents that selectively target apoptosis machinery in cancer cells at cellular or epigenetic levels

Robert W. Curley, Jr.: use of vitamin A and its retinoid analogues as anticancer agents / stereoselective syntheses of stable isotope-labeled amino acids / NMR studies of drug receptor interactions / carotenoid cleavage products and metabolites and their biological importance.

James R. Fuchs: major areas of emphasis of our lab are in the preparation of novel antibiotics and anticancer agents with unique or interesting mechanisms of action through selective inhibition of a specific protein or enzyme target. We will utilize synthetic methods to prepare bioactive natural products and their analogues to gain insight into the structure-activity relationships of ligand/receptor systems, and investigate biosynthetic pathways.

Chenglong Li: Structure-based and computer-aided drug design and discovery (SBDD/CADD), molecular docking, molecular dynamics, computational chemistry, X-ray protein crystallography, Anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and anti-infectious molecular design and simulation.

Pui-Kai (Tom) Li: drug development (steroid sulfatase inhibitors) for the treatment of breastcancer / designing melatonin analogs to elucidate the physiological roles of melatonin in humans.

Larry W. Robertson: fermentation and microbial products, microbiological transformations of drugs, antibiotics, drug metabolism, metabolism and biological activities of cannabinoids.

Werner Tjarks: Nucleosides for anticancer- and antiviral therapy

Karl Werbovetz: discovery and development of drugs to treat disease caused by parasitic organisms.

A. Douglas Kinghorn: research interests include the discovery of natural product lead compounds from tropical rainforest plants, particularly those with potential anticancer, cancer chemopreventive, and oral antimicrobial activity. He is also interested in the scientific evaluation of botanical dietary supplements and the development of potently sweet substances of natural origin.

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Pharmaceutical Administration

Sheryl L. Szeinbach: distribution of pharmaceutical products and services / service delivery decision-making processes that involve utility analysis (pharmacoeconomics) and risk assessment / organizational structure, automation, and information technology.

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Pharmaceutics

Jessie Lai-Sim Au: pharmacodynamics of anticancer and anti-AIDS drugs in cultured cells, tissues, animals and patients; with an emphasis on treatment of bladder, head and neck, prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer.

Kenneth K. Chan: applications of stable isotopes in pharmacokinetics, metabolism and mechanism of action; alkylating agents; cancer chemotherapy and drug development; liposome drug formulation; analytical method development; mass spectrometry.

James T. Dalton: ligand binding domains of androgen, glucocorticoid, progesterone, and estrogen receptors.

Sylvan G. Frank: design and evaluation of drug delivery systems, with an emphasis on emulsions, liposomes, and liquid crystals / micelle stability and solubilization, small-particle formation and microencapsulation, iontophoresis, percolation theory, and fractal geometry.

William L. Hayton (Professor Emeritus) directs research that has the goal of minimizing environment toxicity through understanding pharmacokinetics and metabolism of aquatic species.

Zhongfa Liu: Identification and Validation of Protein and DNA adducts as Epigenetic Biomarkers and Their Modulation by Dietary Supplements for Chemoprevention and Therapy / Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacokinetics, Metabolite and Pharmacodynamics / Drug Analytical Method Development / Mass Spectrometry/ SMEDDS.

Mitch Phelps: Pre-clinical and clinical pharmacokinetics of anti-cancer agents and the role of polymorphisms in transporters and metabolizing enzymes in drug disposition and clinical outcomes.

Thomas D. Schmittgen: development of new cancer therapies or diagnostics, gene expression, targeted drug delivery for cancer therapy. Areas of study include: 1) development of RNA aptamers as targeting agents for prostate and breast cancer; 2) quantitative PCR as a tool to study gene expression in cancerous and noncancerous tissues; 3) role of small, noncoding (i.e. micro RNAs) in cancer development.

M. Guillaume Wientjes: pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs for bladder and prostate cancer in patients, animals, and cell culture / use of regional and targeted drug delivery.

Pharmacology

John A. Bauer: the roles and mechanisms of nitric oxide control in disease, especailly cardiovascular disease / cardiovascular complications assoicated with congestive heart failure, diabetes, and AIDS / nitric oxide control in urological complications of diabetes.

Terry Elton: Dr. Elton's laboratory investigates miRNA expression and aberrant gene regulation in various cardiovascular diseases.

Dale G. Hoyt: Regulation of DNA damage and repair factors in the
extracellular environment; signal transduction processes modifying adverse effects of drugs.

Kari Hoyt: the molecular mechanisms underlying the loss of neurons in neurodegenerative diseases.

Keli Hu: The long-term research interest in Dr. Hu's laboratory is to study the function and regulation of metabolically-sensitive ion channels using cellular and molecular approaches, with a special emphasis on traffic regulation, molecular mechanisms and their physiological relevance, particularly as these processes relate to human diseases.

Dennis B. McKay: The primary focus of our laboratory is on drug discovery. Our target for drug discovery is the nicotinic receptor. Nicotinic receptors and their many subtypes are linked to a number of neurological diseases such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Alzheimer's disease, Tourette's syndrome, Parkinson's disease, autism, and some types of epilepsy.

Popat N. Patil: autonomic nervous system pharmacology with emphasis on steric aspects of drug receptor interactions, desensitization, morphology of sensory and synaptic receptors / ocular pharmacology, and drug melanin interactions.

Mitch Phelps: Pre-clinical and clinical pharmacokinetics of anti-cancer agents and the role of polymorphisms in transporters and metabolizing enzymes in drug disposition and clinical outcomes.

Lane J. Wallace mechanisms by which abused drugs change the brain and its response to drugs / neurodegenerative diseases / bladder dysfunction in diabetes.

Anthony P. Young: molecular and cellular pharmacology / regulation of glutamine synthetase gene expression during retinal development, glucocorticoid-mediated muscle atrophy, and nitric oxide synthase gene expression.

 

Pharmacy Practice

Stuart J. Beatty: pharmacist reimbursement, primary/ambulatory Care, pain management, educational technology.

Cari C. Brackett: interests include infectious disease, AIDS, and optimizing resuscitation.

Robert A. Buerki: professional ethics and pharmacy practice, the history of pharmacy, and pharmacy communications.

James D. Coyle: drug therapy in patients with kidney disease, including those on dialysis. His goal is to help patients and their healthcare providers achieve targeted therapeutic outcomes using a comprehensive pharmacotherapeutic approach, including application of clinical pharmacokinetic and dynamic principles. Treatment of hypertension in renal failure patients is of particular interest.

Joseph F. Dasta: critical care pharmacy, critical care health outcomes and pharmacokinetics.

George Hinkle: nuclear pharmacy with emphasis on the medical use of radionuclides and radiolabeled antibodies.

Daren L. Knoell: studies the lung microenvironment with a particular emphasis on host response during inflammatory stress. Investigations incorporate human lung epithelial cell culture, animal and human studies and aspects of immunology as well as cellular and molecular biology. The most current studies aim to improve our understanding of emphysema and fibrosis pathogenesis.

James M. McAuley: We are working on many new and exciting projects in our expansive laboratory, also known as the outpatient epilepsy clinic. My research focus is the patient with epilepsy. We have a particular focus on women's issues in epilepsy. We have projects looking at the influence of hormones on seizure activity, how pregnancy influences epilepsy and its' treatments, and many more. We have a new clinic with the High Risk OB practitioners providing collaborative pharmaceutical care for pregnant women with epilepsy. There is an intriguing relationship between folate and antiepileptic drugs that has become a recent focus of efforts. Another new project is looking at how we can convert a "pharmacoresistant" patient to someone more sensitive to therapy. Other projects include assessing knowledge about epilepsy by patients and healthcare professionals. The interested student(s) may take on a portion of one of these as their project or develop their own. The many fascinating aspects of clinical research will be discovered.

Milap C. Nahata: pediatric and antimicrobial pharmacokinetics and therapy.

Maria Pruchnicki: areas of interest include ambulatory care and chronic disease management, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacy education, including educational technology and distance learning.

James A. Visconti: drug information / infectious disease therapeutics.

Structure-Based and Computer-Aided Drug Design and Discovery (SBDD/CADD)

Chenglong Li: Structure-based and computer-aided drug design and discovery (SBDD/CADD), molecular docking, molecular dynamics, computational chemistry, X-ray protein crystallography, Anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and anti-infectious molecular design and simulation.

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