RESEARCH FOCUS: Structure activity relationships of novel opioid compounds, novel rescue therapies, opioid maintenance therapies, new analgesics with reduced abuse potential.
Faculty
Jessica Anand, Assistant Professor
William Birdsong, Assistant Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Opioid signaling, pain, electrophysiology.
Carrie Ferrario, Associate Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Striaum; glutamatergic plasticity; receptor trafficking; behavioral pharmacology; addiction; obesity.
Margaret E. Gnegy, Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Mechanism of action of amphetamine at the dopamine transporter; substrate and protein kinase effects on transporter trafficking; drugs to stop effects of amphetamine.
Paula Goforth, Associate Research Scientist
RESEARCH FOCUS: Electrophysiology, glucose homeostasis, hypothalamus.
Michelle Hastings, Professor
Research Focus: RNA therapeutics, RNA splicing, antisense oligonucleotides, rare disease, genetics, inflammation, Usher syndrome, cystic fibrosis, Batten disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease
Lori Isom, Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Mechanisms of epileptic encephalopathy and cardiac arrhythmias linked to mutations in voltage-gated sodium channel genes; mechanisms of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP); ion channel structure and function; transgenic mouse models of neurological and cardiac disease; patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell neurons and cardiac myocytes.
Paul Jenkins, Assistant Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Cellular and molecular neuroscience, Neuropsychiatric disease mechanisms, Bipolar disorder, Protein trafficking, Palmitoylation, Epithelial cell biology,Membrane structure, Mouse models, Electrophysiology.
Kevin Jones, Assistant Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Schizophrenia; Depression, Glutamate signaling, GABAergic interneurons, Fast-Spiking Interneurons, Patch-Clamp Electrophysiology, Behavior, NMDA receptors.
Emily Jutkiewicz, Associate Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Opioids; Psychiatric Disease; Depression; Substance Abuse.
Robert Kennedy, Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Neurotransmitters, insulin, metabolomics.
Erica Levitt, Associate Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Opioids, brainstem circuits, synaptic physiology, breathing, circuit mapping, electrophysiology
Manojkumar Puthenveedu, Associate Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: GPCR trafficking and signaling, opioid, drug addiction.
Leslie Satin, Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Cellular and molecular basis of Type 2 diabetes; ER stress and protein folding diseases; metabolic regulation of ion channel activity; optical methods; drug discovery in diabetes; synaptic transmission and metabolic health of neurons after brain trauma, models of cell function and signaling.
Peter J.H. Scott, Associate Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Adaptation of state-of-the-art organic chemistry techniques (including SPOS) for radiochemical applications, microwave mediated radiochemistry, development of multi-modality biomarkers for PET-MRI.
Alan Smrcka, Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: G proteins; G protein coupled-receptors; Cell Signaling Pathways; Drug Discovery; Cardiac Hypertrophy; Innate Immune Cell Regulation; Phosphatidylinositol, Calcium, and Protein kinase Signaling.
John Traynor, Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Mechanisms of action of addictive drugs. To provide medications for pain relief and the treatment of addictions.
Yukun Yuan, Research Assistant Professor
RESEARCH FOCUS: Neurotoxicology, neuropharmacology/neurophysiology and neurological disorders.