Our Faculty

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty

Heather Barkholtz
Heather Barkholtz, Assistant Professor (CHS) (Drug Action)(Drug Delivery)| Barkholtz Research Group website

Research Interests: Pharmacokinetics & pharmacodynamics; psychoactive substances; development of analytical methods to detect psychoactive substances in various biological matrices.

Arash Bashirullah
Arash Bashirullah, Professor (Drug Action)| Lab Website

Research Interests: Cellular genetics of animal physiology:  uncovering novel genetic and cellular drivers of disease.

Tim Bugni
Tim Bugni, Professor (Drug Discovery)| Bugni Lab Website

Research Interests: Marine natural products chemistry; antibiotic drug discovery; structure determination of novel natural products using NMR and mass spectrometry; and metabolomics studies of marine invertebrate associated microorganisms.

Lara Collier
Lara Collier, Associate Professor (Drug Action)

Research Interests: Genetic and pharmacologic approaches to study disease development and treatment, focusing on cancer and central nervous system diseases.

Jun Dai
Jun Dai, Assistant Professor (Drug Action)

Research Interests:  Understanding the transcriptional networks that control keratinocyte proliferation/differentiation and epidermal barrier functions during development and under pathological conditions.  Developing novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases and skin cancer.

Melgardt de Villiers
Melgardt de Villiers, Professor (CHS) (Drug Delivery)

Research Interests: Developing novel nanometer and micrometer sized drug delivery systems. Application of layer-by-layer selfassembly, dendrimers, halloysite and calixarenes in drug delivery and drug solubilization.

Ting Fu
Ting Fu, Assistant Professor (Drug Action)

Research Interests: Investigating how nuclear receptors sense environmental clues and regulate Gastrointestinal (GI) homeostasis in healthy and disease states (intestinal development, differentiation, and inflammation).

Jennifer Golden
Jennifer Golden, Associate Professor (Drug Discovery)| Golden Lab Website

Research Interests: Synthetic methodology, medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.  Optimization of structure-activity and structure-property relationships.  Exploratory pharmacological mining of novel chemical scaffolds.  Emphasis on development of anticancer and anti-infective agents.

Seungpyo Hong
Seungpyo Hong, Professor (Drug Delivery)| Hong Research Group website

Research Interests: Biomimetic nanotechnology; Nanomaterial-cell interactions; Targeted drug delivery; Cancer immunotherapy; Cancer diagnostics/prognostics; Surface engineering.

Quanyin Hu
Quanyin Hu, Assistant Professor (Drug Delivery)| Hu lab website

Research Interests: Leveraging delivery approaches to address current clinical challenges and facilitate translational research by integrating cell therapy, immunotherapy and personalized therapy.

Jiaoyang Jiang
Jiaoyang Jiang, Associate Professor (Drug Action)(Drug Discovery)| Jiang Lab website

Research Interests: Study the mechanism and function of protein post-translational modifications using a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, such as chemical biology, enzymology, biochemistry, mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, cell biology, and genetics.

Jeffrey Johnson
Jeffrey Johnson, Professor (Drug Action)| Lab Webpage

Research Interests: Transcriptional control of neuroprotective genes and prevention of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and neuromuscular disease.  A focus on dysfunctional proteostasis in disease progression and viral-mediated delivery of protective genes to the brain.

Jason Kwan
Jason Kwan, Associate Professor (Drug Discovery)| Lab Website

Research Interests: The role of uncultured symbionts in natural product biosynthesis within marine invertebrates; marine natural product chemistry; drug discovery; next-generation sequencing; metagenomics; bioinformatics; biosynthesis.

Glen Kwon
Glen Kwon, Professor (Drug Delivery)| Kwon Research Group website

Research Interests: Tumor targeting; Long-acting injectables; polymeric micelles; polymer-peptide conjugates.

Charles Lauhon
Charles Lauhon, Associate Professor (Drug Discovery)

Research Interests: Biochemistry of RNA modifying enzymes; bioorganic chemistry of RNA; nucleotide based rational drug design.

Lingjun Li
Lingjun Li, Professor (Drug Action)(Drug Discovery)| Li Lab Website

Research Interests: Analytical neurochemistry; neuropeptides; proteomics and peptidomics; glycomics and glycoproteomics; biomarker discovery in neurodegenerative diseases; quantitative system biology; metabolomics; microseparations; imaging mass spectrometry and its application to drug delivery and biodistribution; biological mass spectrometry.

Paul Marker
Paul Marker, Professor and Chair (Drug Action)| Marker Lab Website

Research Interests: Molecular basis of prostate development; prostate cancer progression; benign prostatic hyperplasia; roles of cell-cell signaling pathways and the use of mouse genetics to discover novel pathways that underlie prostatic diseases.

Sandro Mecozzi
Sandro Mecozzi, Professor (Drug Delivery)(Drug Discovery)

Research Interests: Di- and tri-block copolymers in drug delivery and imaging; 19F-MRI; nanotechnologies in cancer therapy; immunotherapies; molecular recognition of RNA.

Jason Peters
Jason Peters, Assistant Professor (Drug Action)| Peters Lab Website

Research Interests:  CRISPR-based genetic screens in bioenergy-relevant and pathogenic bacteria to understand gene function and antibiotic mode of action.

Steven Swanson
Steven Swanson, Professor and Dean (Drug Action)(Drug Discovery)

Research Interests:  In vitro and preclinical model systems to investigate the role of the growth hormone/IGF-I axis in prostate carcinogenesis. Mouse-based studies of preclinical efficiency.

Weiping Tang
Weiping Tang, Professor (Drug Discovery)| Tang Research Group website

Medicinal chemistry and bioassay development.  Develop small molecule and protein-based therapeutics to selectively modulate disease-causing proteins.  Design and synthesize ligands for carbohydrate binding proteins.  Develop cell-based and biochemical assays to evaluate the pharmacological properties of novel therapeutics and to study their mechanism of action in-vitro and in-vivo.

Michael Taylor
Michael Taylor, Assistant Professor (Drug Action)

Research Interests: Development and function of the blood-brain barrier; Genetic regulation of inflammation resolution; Cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuroinflammation.

 

Lian Yu
Lian Yu, Professor (Drug Delivery)| Yu Lab Website

Research Interests: Pharmaceutical materials science; solid-state chemistry; amorphous pharmaceuticals; molecular glasses; crystallization; polymorphism; surface mobility; polymeric crystallization inhibitors.

 

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Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research Faculty

Warren Rose
Warren Rose, Associate Professor ; Pharmacy & Medicine (Drug Discovery)

Research Interests: • Antimicrobial resistance and pharmacodynamics  • Antimicrobial effects on host-pathogen interactions

Cody Wenthur
Cody Wenthur, Assistant Professor; Director, MS Program in Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation (Drug Action)

Research Interests:  Synaptic plasticity in substance use and major depressive disorders; Development of antibodies against cannabinoids, opioids, sedative-hypnotics, and classical psychedelics; Immunologic biomarkers of drug use; Implementation of novel psychiatric treatments, including vaccine-based approaches and medication-assisted psychotherapy

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Affiliate Faculty

Weibo Cai
Weibo Cai, Affiliate Professor, School of Pharmacy; Professor of Radiology, School of Medicine and Public Health (Drug Delivery)

Research Interests:  Biomedical nanotechnology; molecular imaging (mostly positron emission tomography and multimodal); image-guided drug delivery; theranostics; translational research; tumor targeting; cancer diagnosis/therapy; imaging of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Reinier Hernandez
Reinier Hernandez, Affiliate Professor, School of Pharmacy; Assistant Professor, Medical Physics (Drug Delivery)(Drug Discovery)

Research Interests: Radiochemistry applications in biomedical research; targeted radionuclide therapy – theranostics; radio-immunooncology; neutron capture therapy.

William Ricke
William Ricke, Affiliate Professor, School of Pharmacy; UW-Medical Foundation Professor of Urologic Research (Drug Action)

Research Interests: Understanding the molecular mechanisms involved with hormone therapy in the prevention and treatment of urologic cancers and benign diseases. Focus areas include: translational research, steroids and small molecules, stromal-epithelial interactions, endocrine disrupting chemicals, mouse models of disease progression.

Lauren Trepanier
Lauren Trepanier, Affiliate Professor, School of Pharmacy; Professor and Assistant Dean for Clinical and Translational Research, School of Veterinary Medicine (Drug Action)

Research Interests: Pharmacogenetics of xenobiotic toxicity, including both therapeutic drugs and environmental carcinogens.  Risk factors for idiosyncratic and dose-dependent drug toxicity.  Genetic variability in phase II detoxification pathways (especially GSTs and cytochrome b5 reductase) and cancer risk in both humans and dogs.

Chad Vezina
Chad Vezina, Affiliate Professor, School of Pharmacy; Professor of Toxicology, Comparative Biosciences, Vet Med (Drug Action)

Research Interests: Molecular basis of prostate and urinary tract development, physiology, and toxicology.

Jamey Weichert
Jamey Weichert, Affiliate Professor, School of Pharmacy; Professor, Department of Radiology (Drug Delivery)(Drug Discovery)

Research Interests:  Design and development of tumor targeted molecular agents for imaging, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy oncology applications. No longer accepting new graduate students.

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Pharmsci Research Cores