Program Faculty & Research

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Research Interests: Development and function of the blood-brain barrier; regulation of major histocompatibilty complex; modulation of neuroinflammation.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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