Medical Pharmacology

Davis, Thomas: Neuropharmacology of the blood brain barrier; biotech approaches to targeting the blood-brain barrier for new drug development; effects of hypoxia, aglycemia, stroke and peripheral inflammatory pain on blood brain barrier, CNS drug delivery, endothelial cell permeability, resistance and cytoarchitecture.

• Departmental affiliations: Pharmacology, Physiology, BIO5 Institute, Arizona Cancer Center
• Program affiliations: Medical Pharmacology, Physiological Sciences, Neuroscience

French, Edward: Neuropharmacology of drugs of abuse and addiction

• Departmental affiliations: Pharmacology
• Program affiliations: Medical Pharmacology, Pharmacology & Toxicology

Hruby, Victor: Professor Hruby is Regents' Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Arizona. Professor Hruby’s research group is primarily interested in the chemistry, conformation-biological activity relationships, molecular mechanisms of information transduction and of molecular diseases associated with peptide hormones and neurotransmitters and their receptors that modulate health, disease, and human behavior. Specific hormones and neurotransmitters of interest include the opioids, the melanotropins, CCK, glucagon, substance P, oxytocin and related compounds and receptors. Specific methods and approaches used in this research include: de novo design of biologically active peptides and peptidomimetics; asymmetric synthesis; design and asymmetric synthesis of novel amino acids; computational chemistry; conformational analysis using NMR, X-ray crystallography and other biophysical tools; combinatorial chemistry; conformation-biological activity relationships, especially as they relate to the design of conformationally and topographically constrained peptide and peptidomimetic hormone and neurotransmitter agonists and antagonists for exploring the chemical-physical basis for information transfer in biological systems; the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of peptide and peptide mimetic ligands that affect pain, addictions, feeding behavior, pigmentation, sexual behavior, glucose homeostasis, cancer, and other biological effects; the chemical-physical basis for behavior; the mechanisms of hormone and neurotransmitter action; peptide mimetic design; and the structure-function of G-protein coupled receptors. The Hruby group also is developing new synthetic methodologies for the assembly of multimeric ligands for the detection and treatment of cancer and other diseases; a new approach to design of ligands for disease states involving the concept of overlapping pharmacophores to address several receptors simultaneously in a single small molecule ligand; and a new biophysical methods called plasmon waveguide resonance spectroscopy, which allows one for the first time to examine the structures, thermodynamics and kinetics of GPCRs and other integral membrane proteins on interactions with ligands, modulatory proteins, enzymes, etc. parallel and perpendicular to the membrane bilayer independently. Victor Hruby has received numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1984) and the Alan E. Pierce Award (now called the Merrifield Award) (1993), and a Senior Humboldt Fellowship (1999-2000). He was awarded a Doctor of Science, Honous Causa from the Free University of Brussels (1989), and was named Regents' Professor at the University of Arizona (1989). Additional awards include the American Chemical Society Ralph F. Hirschmann Award (2002); The Jacob Javits Neuroscience Award (1987); the NIH MERIT Award (1988); and most recently, the Sommer Award (2003).

• Departmental affiliations: Chemistry, BIO5 Institute, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, ARL-Division of Biotechnology, Arizona Cancer Center, Pharmacology
• Program affiliations: Neuroscience, Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology, Chemistry, Biological Chemistry, Advanced Research Institute for Biomedical Imaging (ARIBI), Medical Pharmacology

Lai, Josephine: Research interests include neuropathic pain and its association with sodium channels and spinal dynorphin; pharmacology of neuropathic pain, using nerve ligation injury in the rat as a model.

• Departmental affiliations: Pharmacology, Molecular & Cellular Biology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics
• Program affiliations: Medical Pharmacology, Neuroscience