Research Interests: Pharmacokinetics & pharmacodynamics; psychoactive substances; development of analytical methods to detect psychoactive substances in various biological matrices.
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, cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography, cell biology, and computational modeling.
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: Synthetic pharmacology; protein engineering and chemical biology approaches to pharmacology and drug discovery; novel molecular platform development for drug discovery; GPCR pharmacology; Immuno-oncology.
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: 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.
Sandro Mecozzi, Professor and Vice Chair (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.
Research Interests: CRISPR-based genetic screens in bioenergy-relevant and pathogenic bacteria to understand gene function and antibiotic mode of action.
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.
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: • Antimicrobial resistance and pharmacodynamics • Antimicrobial effects on host-pathogen interactions
Cody Wenthur, Associate Professor ; Co-Director, Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center
Director of Graduate Studies, Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation Programs
(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
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.
Shaoqin Sarah Gong, Affiliate Professor, School of Pharmacy; Vilas Distinguished Professor, Dept. of Ophthamology & Visual Sciences (Drug Delivery)
Research Interests: Multidisciplinary work bridging engineering with materials science, chemistry, and the life sciences - including drug delivery, nanomedicine, gene and genome editing therapy, immunotherapy, antimicrobial materials, and tissue engineering.
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, 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, 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, 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, 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.
