School of Pharmacy at University of Wisconsin-Madison - Pharmaceutical Sciences Division Faculty Research Interests

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty

• Arash Bashirullah, Assistant Professor (Drug Action)
  • Molecular genetics of hormone action and developmental timing.
• Ron Burnette, Associate Professor and Vice Chair (Drug Delivery)
  • Developing a molecular level mechanistic understanding of the delivery and stability of drugs by physical chemical characterization of guest-host interactions using computational chemistry and NMR.
• Margaret Clagett-Dame, Professor (Drug Action)
  • Therapeutic applications of vitamin A and vitamin D analogs; retinoids in embryonic and nervous system development.
• Lara Collier, Assistant Professor (Drug Action)
  • Genetic approaches to identify genes involved in cancer initiation, progression, and therapy resistance.
• Darin Furgeson, Assistant Professor (Drug Delivery)
  • Intelligent protein-based polymers for multi-targeted drug and gene delivery; non-canonical amino acids for novel macromolecular delivery; siRNA gene therapy across the blood brain barrier for ALS and glioblastoma multiforme; zebrafish as a model organism for biomaterial nanotoxicology and tumor angiogenesis.
• Warren Heideman, Professor (Drug Action)
  • Understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate the cellular transition from quiescence to growth; identifying critical mechanisms regulating vertebrate development that are disrupted by environmental contaminants; creating strategies for the fermentative production of biofuels.
• Richard Hsung, Professor (Drug Discovery)
  • Developing novel and practical synthetic methods for drug discovery, total syntheses of complex natural products with biological relevance, syntheses of de novo protease inhibitors for drug designs and asymmetric catalysis.
• Jeffrey Johnson, Professor (Drug Action)
  • Signal transduction, transcriptional control of neuroprotective genes and neurotoxicity in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Neuromuscular disease.
• W. John Kao, Professor (Drug Delivery)
  • Mechanisms of cell adhesion and activation on biomaterials, biomaterial biocompatibility and biodegradation, novel materials for tissue engineering.
• Glen Kwon, Professor (Drug Delivery)
  • Polymeric nanobiomaterials for drug, gene, and antigen delivery.
• Charles Lauhon, Associate Professor and Vice Chair (Drug Discovery)
  • Bioorganic chemistry of RNA; biochemistry of RNA modifying enzymes; nucleotide based drug design.
• Lingjun Li, Associate Professor (Drug Action/Drug Discovery)
  • Analytical neurochemistry, neuropeptides, proteomics, biomarker discovery, and biological mass spectrometry.
• Paul Marker, Assistant Professor (Drug Action)
  • Molecular basis of prostate development and prostate cancer progression. Areas of interest include the roles of cell-cell signaling pathways and the use of mouse genetics to discover novel prostatic oncogenes and tumor suppressors.
• Sandro Mecozzi, Associate Professor (Drug Delivery/Drug Discovery)
  • Design and synthesis of fluorinated agents for nanobiomedicine. Molecular recognition and bioorganic chemistry of RNA.
• William Mellon, Professor (Drug Action)
  • Biochemical pharmacology of hormones. Mechanosensitive pathways of cellular function.
• Richard Peterson, Professor and Chair (Drug Action)
  • Reproductive and developmental toxicity of dioxin and nanomaterials in zebrafish and mouse models.
• Ben Shen, Professor (Drug Discovery)
  • The chemistry, biochemistry, and genetics of natural products; enzyme reaction mechanisms; biosynthesis; metabolic pathway engineering, and drug discovery.
• Weiping Tang, Assistant Professor (Drug Discovery)
  • Stereoselective synthetic methodologies; total synthesis, asymmetric catalysis, and chemical biology of chromatin.
• Jon Thorson, Professor (Drug Discovery)
  • Biocatalysis, bioorganic chemistry, biosynthesis, enzyme engineering, glycorandomization, mechanistic enzymology, and organic synthesis.
• Lian Yu, Professor (Drug Delivery)
  • Solid-state chemistry of drugs; crystallization, polymorphism, molecular self-assembly and organic glasses.

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Affiliate Faculty

• Ralph Albrecht, Professor, Depts. of Animal Science & Pediatrics (Drug Action/Drug Delivery)
  • Use of inductively heated, antibody targeted, core-shell nanoparticles for removal of targeted cells in vitro and in vivo. Development of high resolution nanoparticle labeling systems for correlative microscopy.
• Adnan Elfarra, Professor, Dept. of Comparative Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine (Drug Action)
  • Bioactivation of drugs, industrial chemicals, and environmental toxicants; biochemical basis for target organ selectivity; biomarkers of exposure and effect; structure and function of flavin-containing monooxygenases; glutathione-dependent prodrugs of anticancer drugs.
• Lauren Trepanier, Associate Professor, Dept. of Medical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine (Drug Action)
  • Pharmacogenetics; metabolic basis of arylamine drug toxicity and arylamine carcinogenesis.
• Jamey Weichert, Associate Professor, Dept. of Radiology (Drug Delivery/Drug Discovery)
  • Design and development of molecular contrast and imaging agents for a wide range of applications in diagnostic imaging as well as in the development of radio-pharmaceuticals for therapeutic use in oncology.

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Emeritus Faculty