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Molecular Pharmacology & Neuroscience
Stritch School of Medicine
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Overview of research tracks

Research in the department is focused in three main areas: cancer biology and signal transduction, cardiovascular pharmacology and neuropharmacology. Faculty use a variety of cutting-edge experimental approaches to address fundamental research questions in each of these areas. These approaches range from those involving detailed in vitro analysis of specific signal transduction pathways in tissue culture model systems, to behavioral, electrophysiological and functional studies of intact whole animals, and even large-scale genetic studies of human patient populations. Overall, the primary goal of our studies is to gain important insights and a greater understanding of the etiology and potential treatment of diseases such as cancer, hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, asthma, Troyer’s syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Cancer & Signal Transduction

Neil Clipstone, Ph.D. - The role of the calcineurin/NFAT-signaling pathway in cell growth and differentiation.
Mitchell Denning, Ph.D. - Role of protein kinase C isoforms in normal skin biology, the response of skin to ultraviolet radiation, and skin carcinogenesis.

Celeste Greer, Ph.D. - Calcium-responsive signaling pathways and their regulation of gene transcription in nerurons.
Eric Villalon Landeros, Ph.D. - Defining novel neuronal membrane proteasome (NMP) signaling pathways that regulate peripheral sensory neuron communication and function. 

Cardiovascular Pharmacology

Jawed Fareed, Ph.D. - Pharmacology of drugs used in the treatment of thrombosis and bleeding disorders
Debra Hoppensteadt, Ph.D. - Discovery of new anticoagulants used to treat thrombosis
Walter K. Jones, Ph.D. - Mechanism of ischemia reperfusion injury and cardioprotection in the role of stem cells, exosomes, and microRNA's in cardiovascular systems
Karie Scrogin, Ph.D. - Neuroendocrine regulation of circulation in shock, heart failure and anxiety

Neuropharmacology

Joanna Bakowska, Ph.D. - Genetic, behavioral and cellular approaches to study mechanisms in spastic paraplegias.
Rocco Gogliotti, Ph.D. - Neurogenetics of autism and autism-associated disorders and the neuropharmacology of novel treatment strategies.

Celeste Greer, Ph.D. - Transcriptional pause-release mechanisms in memory and as drug targets for cognitive dysfunction.
Jessica Hoffman, Ph.D. - Molecular, cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying alcohol use disorder, with an emphasis on maladaptive glutamatergic plasticity and the development of targeted neuropharmacological treatment strategies.
Simon Kaja, Ph.D. - Novel glioprotective and neuroprotective approaches for ocular disorders.
Kelly Langert, Ph.D. - Tartgeted drug delivery to the inflamed peripheral nerve, identifying novel therapeutic targets at the blood-nerve barrier and the leukocyte-endothelial interface, elucidating the physiological and pathophysiological roles of monomeric GTPases in endothelial cells.
Karie Scrogin, Ph.D. - Neuroendocrine regulation of circulation in shock, heart failure and anxiety.
Eric Villalon Landeros, Ph.D. - Developing targeted neuropharmacological approaches to regulate peripheral sensory neuron signaling underlying sensation and pain.

RNA Therapeutics

Our Research programs all seek to understand basic medical and biological functions, and disease mechanisms, with an eye towards the delineation of new and novel therapeutic targets. Many of us work on therapeutics related to those targets as well.
 
Our new focus on RNA Therapeutics has great potential. More and more scientists are discovering unknown roles for RNA in biology and in disease mechanisms. For instance, it is becoming accepted that microRNAs (mRNAs), small, non-coding RNAs that act on target genes at many levels, play important regulatory roles and that they are transferred in the body from cell to cell via vesicles called exosomes. Using exosomes and exosome-like vesicles to transfer mRNAs and inhibitory RNAs with therapeutic potential has great promise. Currently the top 100 drugs target about 40 proteins, many of these are receptors that are deemed “targetable.” However, there are around 30,000 protein-encoding genes in humans and perhaps another 4000-6000 non-coding genes that may have critical effects in regulating biology and therefore might be therapeutic targets. RNA therapeutics offer the possibility to modulate all of these targets and the potential to easily design, test and develop new agents. RNA therapeutics have already been approved by FDA (e.g. Mipomersen for hypercholesterolemia) and others are under development. We are at the beginning of a revolution in this field. In addition to non-coding RNAs, we now know that RNA is “edited,” which can mean that a protein’s amino acid sequence is different from that indicated by the encoding gene. This may provide new targets for diseases in which this process is altered and has implications for drugs that act at protein sites that are modified. The upshot is that new developments in our understanding of biology provide opportunities to develop new classes of therapeutics; we are pushing to take advantage of the advances in RNA biology and are among the pioneers in this area. 
 
W. Keith Jones, PhD - Exosomal RNA in Cardiovascular disease and regeneration.
Simon Kaja, PhD - Exosomes and miRNA in optic nerve biology.