Bruce Alexander
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Alexander is currently Associate Chief, Clinical Programs in the Department of Pharmacy at the Iowa City VA Health Care System (ICVAHCS). For 30 years his clinical work was in inpatient psychiatry at the ICVAHCS where he served as a preceptor for ambulatory care pharmacy residents and as a research project collaborator. In the College of Pharmacy he taught senior pharmacy students on clerkship and coordinated as well as lectured in the neuropsychiatry therapeutic module for 3rd year pharmacy students. Dr. Alexander retired from teaching in 2005 but still serves as a mentor to two pharmacy students. He is co-author of the Psychotropic Drug Handbook, which is currently in its 8th edition and has authored several book chapters along with many peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Alexander was the VA pharmacist representative to the 2004 VA/Department of Defense Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Practice Guideline Committee, where he authored the section on pharmacologic management. From August 2008 to November 2011 he was the VISN 23 Mental Health Pharmacoepidemiologist, where he developed therapeutic and economic projects for the service line.
His research interests include psychotropic pharmacokinetics, PTSD pharmacotherapeutics, and mental health pharmacoepidemiology.
Keywords: mental health, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacokinetics, PTSD
Mahfoud Assem
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Assem has a long-standing interest in the fields of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics.
His research interests focus on pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine in malignant gliomas, the most frequent type of primary adult brain tumors. His objectives are to develop a precise, therapeutically-relevant classification of gliomas based upon genetic alterations. These genetic alterations can be used to improve malignant glioma chemotherapy strategies and can provide new insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying glioma severity. These abnormalities could then be potentially used as predictors of therapeutic outcome that reveal sensitivity or resistance to anticancer drugs prior to administration. Among several promising markers, his team has identified numerous acquired and inactivating deletions and mutations in PTPRK, NOTCH3 and TDP1 genes. His team is currently studying their roles in glioma and delineating the molecular mechanisms by which they function in gliomagenesis.
Dr. Assem has a secondary interest in understanding the role of the genetic and environmental regulations of drug metabolism (pharmacokinetics) and drug action (pharmacodynamics), with an emphasis on the role of genetic polymorphisms in drug response. The aims of his works are to develop an individualized dosing protocol that predicts efficacy and reduces toxicity of clinically relevant agents especially those with a narrow therapeutic window.
His research uses many genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics technologies such as knockout mice, cell culture, retroviruses and adenoviruses transductions, western blot, PCR, real time PCR, sequencing, promoter studies and microarrays.
Key Words: pharmacogenetics, pharmacogenomics, personalized medicine, brain cancers, drug metabolism
Heather Bream-Rouwenhorst
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Bream-Rouwenhorst is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Cardiology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Assistant Professor (Clinical) at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. She follows patients with cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension, and cardiothoracic transplants. Dr. Bream-Rouwenhorst actively participates in inpatient rounds, intervening on drug therapy problems, providing drug information, and focusing on providing continuity of care between the inpatient and outpatient setting. She also serves as a preceptor to pharmacy students for both introductory and advanced clinical practice experiences and for UIHC PGY1 residents. Her clinical interest areas include cardiology, critical care, internal medicine, and infectious disease. She received her Doctorate of Pharmacy from the University of Iowa and completed a General Practice Residency and a Specialty Residency in Critical Care at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Key Words: cardiology, critical care, transplant, internal medicine
Nicole K. Brogden
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Brogden is both a clinical pharmacist and pharmaceutical scientist, and her overall research interests encompass the development of novel drug delivery systems. More specifically, her research is focused on transdermal delivery and exploring various means of enhancing the percutaneous delivery of otherwise skin-impermeable compounds. Dr. Brogden’s lab is currently exploring active means of transiently disrupting the skin barrier via application of microneedles. Using a combination of impedance spectroscopy, transepidermal water loss, and drug diffusion studies, the Brogden group is studying the timeframes of skin healing across various age ranges following application of microneedles to intact, healthy skin. Underlying healing mechanisms following microneedle insertion are also being studied as a means of understanding the differences in timeframes and physiological processes that contribute to skin healing in elderly vs. young subjects. Current disease states of interest within the group include pain control, alcohol abuse, osteoarthritis, and local skin lesions.
Key words: transdermal, microneedle, skin, percutaneous drug delivery
John Brooks
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Brooks is presently tackling the theoretical and empirical issues surrounding treatment effectiveness research in several clinical areas including breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, end-stage renal disease, and acute nursing care. He is Deputy Director of the Healthcare Effectiveness Research Center (HERCe), a center co-sponsor by the College of Public Health and College of Pharmacy is dedicated to the understanding the theoretical and applied issues associated with effectiveness research in healthcare.
In addition, Dr. Brooks’ research interests include modeling and describing bargaining outcomes and processes in healthcare. Dr. Brooks’ theoretical models and empirical work on bargaining over price between healthcare providers and payers were said to “represent a significant advance over other work by writing down a carefully specified theoretical model of bargaining” by Martin Gaynor and William Vogt in the Handbook of Health Economics (North-Holland 2000).
Key Words: treatment effectiveness, evaluation of observational data, bargaining in healthcare
Lucinda Buys
Departmant of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Buys is a clinical pharmacist and Associate Professor (Clinical) in the College of Pharmacy, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Family Medicine, Carver College of Medicine. Her practice location in Sioux City is associated with the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation and provides opportunity for both outpatient and inpatient learning experiences. Through her engagement in direct patient care, as well as traditional provision of drug information and pharmacotherapy consultation to physicians and allied health care providers, she is able to provide a comprehensive pharmacy student rotation. She maintains active practice interests in the areas of anticoagulation and hypertension. As a faculty member of the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation, she participates directly in the education of medical residents and allied health professional students in the Family Medicine Residency Program.
In addition to her patient care responsibilities at the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation, Dr. Buys is the program director for the PGY (1) Pharmacy Residency Program in Sioux City, IA. The pharmacy residency program in Sioux City is a joint effort of local hospitals and the Foundation to provide high quality pharmacy residency experiences in a community-based setting.
Barry Carter
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
National Interdisciplinary Primary Care Network
The long range goal of Dr. Carter’s research is to evaluate strategies to improve chronic disease control and minimize medication risk utilizing physician/pharmacist collaborative teams. Dr. Carter, an expert on hypertension, participated on writing panels for the JNC-5, 6 and 7 guidelines, and he is currently serving on the writing panel for JNC-8.
Dr. Carter has extensive experiencing conducting clinical trials. The IMPROVE study, conducted in nine VHA ambulatory clinics, demonstrated that a physician-pharmacist collaborative model can positively affect disease-specific outcomes, overall health, clinic visits and utilization costs. Dr. Carter was co-principal investigator for the Iowa Pharmaceutical Case Management Program that evaluated the impact of community pharmacist interventions for Medicaid patients at high risk for medication-related problems. Dr. Carter also served as a Senior Scientist in the Iowa City VA Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice (CRIISP).
Dr. Carter has served as Principal Investigator on four studies funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute within the National Institutes for Health. Two studies found that physician-pharmacist collaboration significantly improved blood pressure control in family medicine clinics in Iowa. The Iowa Continuity of Care study is evaluating whether enhanced continuity of pharmacy care can reduce adverse drug events, hospitalizations and unscheduled physician visits for patients with varied chronic illnesses who receive their primary care in the community.
Dr. Carter currently is the principal investigator for an NHLBI funded study that is being conducted in 32 medical clinics across the United States. The CAPTION study is evaluating the impact of physician-pharmacist collaboration on both hypertension and asthma and is also examining the extent to which the physician-pharmacist collaborative model is implemented in clinics that exhibit wide geographic, economic and racial diversity.
Key words: chronic care, hypertension, collaboration, clinical pharmacy
Maureen D. Donovan
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Donovan's research interests include novel drug delivery systems in mucosal drug delivery especially via the nasal, gastrointestinal and vaginal epithelia; and mechanisms of drug absorption and disposition.
Jonathan Doorn
Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry
In general, Dr. Doorns’ work involves examining the role of reactive intermediates in toxicity and disease. Specifically, his mechanistic, hypothesis-driven research focuses on the potential role of protein modification by a reactive metabolite of dopamine metabolism in neurotoxicity and neurodegenerative disease, i.e. Parkinson’s disease. Dopamine (DA) is an important neurotransmitter that is metabolized by monoamine oxidase to 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (DOPAL), an intermediate shown to be reactive toward proteins and toxic to dopaminergic cells. Specifically, the following areas are being investigated. (1) Characterize the chemistry of DOPAL, with emphasis on determining DOPAL reactivity toward proteins and identifying novel ways to synthesize the DA-derived aldehyde. (2) Elucidate mechanisms for generation of DOPAL at aberrant concentrations, involving exposure to drugs, oxidative stress and environmental agents. (3) Identify proteins modified by DOPAL. The Doorn lab is developing a proteomics-based approach to isolate and identify proteins with DOPAL adducts. (4) Determine the functional consequence of protein modification by DOPAL. Several potential targets are being studied, including the proteasome and proteins involved in DA synthesis and trafficking. In summary, the Dr. Doorn is studying the biological chemistry of DOPAL, as aberrant levels of the DA-derived aldehyde may represent a “chemical trigger” for neurodegeneration (e.g. PD). This work is highly significant as outcomes of the research may yield novel targets for therapeutic intervention, and future work will evaluate the potential of aldehyde-scavenging drugs to attenuate DOPAL-mediated toxicity and neurodegeneration.
Key Words: dopamine, Parkinson’s disease, reactive intermediates, aldehydes, oxidative stress
William Doucette
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Doucette's primary interest is in how the characteristics of health care systems impact the practitioner behavior, especially the delivery of care to patients with chronic conditions. He has used individual social psychology, exchange, and organization models to study pharmacist and physician behavior. He has developed and is testing a model of physician-pharmacist collaboration. He has been active in evaluating pharmacist services in a community setting.
Key words: team, pharmacist, medication therapy, ambulatory
Michael W. Duffel
Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry
Dr. Duffel’s current research activities are centered on enzyme-catalyzed reactions that occur with xenobiotics. The major component of this effort includes studies to better understand and predict the role that sulfotransferases play in the cytotoxic, immunologic, mutagenic and carcinogenic responses to drugs, environmental chemicals, and other xenobiotics. This exploration of sulfotransferases employs a broad array of techniques in enzymology, biological chemistry, and chemistry that range from laboratory-based to computational approaches. These studies include investigations into the molecular bases for the substrate specificities, catalytic mechanisms, stereospecificities, and regulation of these enzymes. One major current research project, “Aryl and Alcohol Sulfotransferases in Drug Metabolism,” is funded by the National Cancer Institute. This project includes investigations on the role of sulfotransferases in a carcinogenic side-effect of a metabolite of the drug tamoxifen, studies on the mechanism and catalytic regulation of aryl and alcohol sulfotransferases, and development of methods to discover highly selective inhibitors of sulfotransferase isoforms. A second major research effort is directed towards understanding how polychlorinated biphenyls and their hydroxylated metabolites alter the regulation and catalytic function of the hydroxysteroid sulfotransferases. This is a component project, entitled “PCBs and Hydroxysteroid (Alcohol) Sulfotransferases”, within the Iowa Superfund Basic Research Program entitled “Semi-volatile PCBs: Sources, Exposures, Toxicities”. This research is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Key Words: drug metabolism, enzymology, toxicology. sulfotransferase, carcinogenesis
Erika Ernst
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Ernst’s research interests are in the area of infectious diseases and antimicrobial agents. This includes studies pharmacodynamics, pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacogenetics of antibiotics. Pharmacodynamic research has focused on the relationship between drug concentration and antimicrobial killing properties of antifungal and antibacterial agents. This research includes designing dosing regimens that optimize antimicrobial action while minimizing toxicity and the development of resistance. Pharmacoepidemiological studies investigate the relationships between drug utilization and risk factors for infection with resistant organisms and adverse effects of antimicrobial agents. Newer research interests include describing the pharmacogenetic basis for adverse effects of antimicrobial agents.
Key words: infectious diseases, antimicrobial agents, pharmacodynamics, pharmacoepidemiology, pharamcogenetics, adverse effects
Jennifer Fiegel
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Fiegel’s research focuses on the development of novel drug delivery systems for diseases of the lung, with special emphasis on infectious and inflammatory diseases. Through experimental studies and mathematical modeling, the laboratory designs medical aerosols with an improved ability to target the delivery of therapeutics within the lungs and explores the complex physical interactions between these delivery systems and various cells and fluids native to the lungs. The group is also investigating new ways to suppress the transmission of airborne pathogens via local variations in the lung lining fluid.
Key Words: Drug delivery, lungs, aerosol, infectious disease
Douglas Flanagan
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Flanagan’s research involves the application of diffusion principles to the analysis of dissolution processes for the development of controlled release formulations using biodegradable polymers or other polymeric delivery systems. He is also interested in the application of thermal analytical methods to the characterization of the kinetics of solid-state reactions.
Dr. Flanagan’s research has led to the development of a unified dissolution model for spherical particulate drug systems which included experimental support for the model. This model unified three other models into one model describing the diffusion layer-controlled dissolution of drug particles. This model has been extended to particles that are normally distributed in size and will be further extended to describing the dissolution behavior of non-spherical particles. These models have further application to a number of controlled release drug systems in which diffusion of drug through or in a polymeric matrix is the controlling factor in the rate of drug release. The polymeric systems involve both biodegradable polymers such as polyesters and non-degradable polymers commonly used in pharmaceutical formulation to control drug release.
Dr. Flanagan has also been recently involved in developing new methods to analyze thermoanalytical data to extract meaningful kinetic parameters for solids that undergo physical or chemical change when they are heated. There are many methods for extracting such data from thermogravimetric or differential scanning calorimetric data on solid systems. Dr. Flanagan’s research has focused on methods to extract kinetic parameters that are independent of the analysis method that can lead to a better understanding of the controlling mechanisms for solid-state reactions. His methodology has been successfully applied to the desolvation kinetics of drug solvates and will be extended to other physical and chemical process in the solid-state.
Key Words: diffusion, dissolution, drug release, solid-state kinetics, thermal analysis, biodegradable polymers, controlled drug release
Lawrence Fleckenstein
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Fleckenstein’s long-term research focus has been in clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD), particularly as these disciplines relate to the influence of disease states or population factors on the variability and elimination of drugs from the human body. Traditional and population pharmacokinetics models and modeling form an increasing part of the approach to the optimal design, development and use of new medicines. While models to characterize the pharmacokinetics of drugs take on many forms, one of the most powerful and useful approaches is to integrate patient demographic, pathophysiologic and therapeutic features to investigate alteration of dose-concentration relationships. Population pharmacokinetics seeks to identify pathophysiologic factors that cause changes in the dose-concentration relationship so that if such changes are associated with clinically significant shifts in the therapeutic index, the dosage can be appropriately adjusted. Population pharmacokinetics is the study of the sources and correlates of variability in drug concentrations between and within individuals representative of those in whom the drug will be used clinically.
Dr Fleckenstein’s research interests include:
1) Design of clinical pharmacokinetic experiments, population PK/PD study design and clinical trial design
2) The use of traditional and population methods for PK/PD analysis.
3) The influence of disease factors on the pharmacokinetics of drugs.
Dr. Fleckenstein’s current research program is focused on the pharmacokinetics and development of new therapies for parasitic diseases for underdeveloped countries, primarily malaria, and onchocerciasis. These studies involve quantitation of drug levels of investigational new drugs in biological fluids by HPLC or LCMS analysis and subsequent PK/PD analysis using traditional and population approaches.
Key Words: Clinical research, pharmacokinetics, clinical pharmacokinetics, drug development
Amber Goedken
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Goedken's primary research interest is child and adolescent health. Specifically, her focus is on chronic conditions that affect children, such as asthma and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She has examined the impact of parent insurance status and other parent, family, and child factors on well-child visits and children’s physician visits for asthma. Her current work explores the factors that influence medication use by children and the effectiveness of medications in this population. Dr. Goedken is also interested in how pharmacy benefit design affects medication use in all age groups. She has studied the association between cost-sharing and the number of medications used by elderly Medicare beneficiaries before and after implementation of Medicare Part D.
Key words: child, adolescent, medication use, pharmacy benefit design
Brett H. Heintz
Brett H. Heintz, Pharm.D., BCPS-ID, AAHIVE, a Pharmacy Specialist in Internal Medicine / Infectious Diseases, joined the Iowa City VA Health Care System in September 2012. He also holds an academic position as Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy and precepts pharmacy students, delivers didactic lectures and coordinates a pharmacotherapy course. Prior to joining the Iowa City VA and the University of Iowa he served as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy with a clinical practice in Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine at UC Davis Medical Center.
Dr. Heintz’s primary research and clinical interests include antimicrobial dosing in renal failure and obesity, management of outpatient delivery of antimicrobial therapy, impact of antimicrobial stewardship and formulary management on antimicrobial resistance trends and patient outcomes, and determination of predictors of resistance, treatment failure and toxicity of antistaphylococcal and antipseudomonal agents. Dr. Heintz has authored several articles and book chapters related to antimicrobial therapy and he presented numerous presentations and posters at local, state and national level meetings.
James D. Hoehns
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
The Research Department is a department of the Northeast Iowa Medical Education Foundation (NEIMEF). NEIMEF includes the Northeast Iowa Family Practice Center which serves as the home clinic for the Northeast Iowa Family Medicine Residency Program. The Research Department was established to facilitate the opportunity for patients and providers from our practice to be able to participate in clinical research protocols.
Since 1992, NEIMEF has participated in over 90 clinical research protocols. Most of these protocols are sponsored phase II-IV pharmaceutical clinical trials. We participate in clinical protocols involving disease states which are commonly treated by Family Medicine physicians. Specific areas of emphasis for our site include: diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, osteoarthritis, and depression. NEIMEF utilizes a complete electronic patient medical record which assists our research activities.
Our experienced research team includes: John E. Sutherland, M.D., Matthew E. Ulven, MD, MPH, FAAFP, Pam Trenkamp, R.N., CCRC, and Angie Bixby-Ellerman, CRC.
Key Words: clinical research, family medicine, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, osteoarthritis, depression, primary care
Zhendong Jin
Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry
The main emphasis of Dr. Jin’s research is the total synthesis of various biologically active natural products and structural analogues, the discovery and development of new synthetic methods with particular interest in asymmetric reactions, and synthesis of novel anticancer agents.
Key words: organic synthesis, total synthesis, new synthetic methods, anticancer agents
Robert Kerns
Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry
Dr. Kerns’ research is focused in two programmatic areas. One research program is focused on the study of biologically important glycoconjugates. A main area of emphasis in this program is the evaluation of new approaches to inhibit cellular interactions and biological processes mediated by cell surface glycosaminoglycans. The Kerns lab is developing new strategies to prepare non-polyanionic molecules that selectively inhibit heparan sulfate-protein interactions, and working to identify comparatively small, minimally-charged oligosaccharides that block or modulate physiological processes mediated by glycosaminoglycan-protein interactions.
The second area of research in the Kerns laboratory is focused on antibiotic resistance and anti-infective drug discovery. This program employs synthetic chemistry as the foundation of an interdisciplinary strategy utilizing the design, synthesis and evaluation of novel antibiotics, analogs and molecular probes to study bacterial resistance mechanisms and to explore the development of new antibacterial agents that are active against drug-resistant microorganisms. The design and synthesis of novel anti-leishmaniasis and anti-malaria agents is also being pursued.
Key Words: glycosaminoglycans, heparin, heparan sulfate, carbohydrates, glycoconjugates, medicinal chemistry, antimicrobial resistance, fluoroquinolones, drug design, anti-infective agents, antibiotics
Lee E. Kirsch
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Kirsch's research interests include macromolecular peptide prodrugs for targeted drug delivery, the kinetics and mechanisms of the chemical instability of drugs, the kinetics and mechanisms of the physical instability of dispersed and colloidal systems, and pharmaceutical package integrity technologies.
Vijay Kumar
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Vijay Kumar’s research interests fall in the following two areas: (i) basic and applied pharmaceutics and (ii) tissue engineering. His research in basic and applied pharmaceutics involves the study of different polymorphic forms of cellulose and their aqueous dispersions as potential pharmaceutical excipients and chemical modifications of cellulose to produce novel functionalized polymers for use as drug carriers. Studies in tissue engineering focus on the use of cellulose, oxidized cellulose, and oxidized cellulose-chitosan scaffolds to develop functional, tissue engineered small diameter blood vessels and heart valves. The major emphasis of this research is the rationale design of small diameter (< 5 mm) tubular and heart valve scaffolds that support and promote cell adhesion and growth, provide the geometric guidance to the proliferating cells, and perform mechanically and hemodynamically similar to the native vessels and valves.
Key Words: Cellulose; modified celluloses; oxidized cellulose; chitosan; Pharmaceutical excipients; drug delivery; biodegradable polymers; tissue engineering; cardiovascular tissue engineering.
Gary Milavetz
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Milavetz’s research interests include the pharmacotherapeutics of respiratory medications. He has numerous original research publications on the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and clinical efficacy of medications used to treat respiratory disease.
Daryl Murry
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
His research interests include: incorporation of innovative dosing strategies into Phase I clinical trials, the development and validation of surrogate endpoints in clinical trials, and the clinical pharmacology of anti-neoplastic agents. Dr. Murry collaborates with a number of research groups within the Schools of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Public Health and with national partners across the country. Dr. Murry has published extensively in many health sciences journals. He is a member of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Committee and of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Murry is currently an Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy. Dr. Murry earned his B.S. and his Pharm.D. degree from the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. He completed his Residency training at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and his research fellowship training in cancer pharmacology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He then became co-director of the Clinical Pharmacology Unit at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. Murry returned to the Midwest in 1998 to accept a position at Purdue University prior to arriving at the University of Iowa in 2003.
Key words: Pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenomics, Phase I trials
Horacio F. Olivo
Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry
We have three main research program areas in our group. The first one is on the total syntheses of novel cytotoxic marine marcrolactones. We are currently focused on the syntheses of 14-membered ring callipeltosides and aurisides. A second theme is to develop chemical strategies for the syntheses of complex Stemona alkaloids. These molecules possess challenging structures and potent biological activity. The third area of research is the application of biotransformations to problems in synthetic organic chemistry. Research efforts include the preparation of chiral synthons by enzymatic desymmetrization of meso-compounds to single enantiomers and microbial hydroxylation of heteroatoms and unactivated carbons. These chiral synthons are then employed in the total enantioselective syntheses of natural products with great biological importance: marine glycosylated and halogenated macrolides and complex alkaloids of great biological significance.
Linnea A. Polgreen
Division of Pharmacy Practice and Science
I am a health economist who is interested in econometric approaches to solving problems in healthcare, specifically personal healthcare choices. I have examined the optimal strategies for estimating healthcare costs. I have also used econometric approaches to examine hospital employee vaccination rates, adherence to therapy for patients with HIV, obesity, and the effects of rising health insurance costs.
Kevin G. Rice
Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry
My laboratory is focused on the development and testing of non-viral gene delivery systems. This typically involves the development of peptides that either bind ionically or covalently to plasmid DNA to direct its targeting across the cell membrane and to the nucleus. We also develop glycopeptides for gene delivery, where the N-glycan mediates cell-specific targeting of DNA and receptor mediated endocytosis. The lab expertise includes solid-phase peptide synthesis, HPLC and MS, plasmid DNA and siRNA formulation, in vitro and in vivo testing of gene delivery systems and bioconjugate chemistry including N-glycan purification and PEGylation of peptides.
Key Words: non-viral gene delivery, DNA, siRNA, gene formulation, solid phase peptide synthesis, LC-MS, luciferase, in vitro and in vivo gene transfer, bioluminescence imaging, proteasome inhibition, polyethylene glycol, glycoprotein, glycopeptide, N-glycan, bioconjugate chemistry.
David L. Roman
Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry
Research in the Roman Lab focuses on the role of Regulator of G Protein Signaling (RGS) proteins in normal cellular signal transduction as well as in disease states, such as cancer. Primarily, we are interested in the discovery and development of small molecule interventions, which we call "pre-therapeutic' agents that have potential to become drugs. We are heavily interested and invested in high throughput screening to accomplish our research goals. To do so, we implement the cutting-edge technologies including dynamic mass redistribution, AlphaScreen and fluorometric, genetically encoded biosensors for interrogating RGS protein activity in cells.
One of our projects, currently supported by the National Cancer Institute, is focused on identifying small molecule inhibitors of RGS17. RGS17 is a protein upregulated in both prostate and familial lung cancers. Studies have shown that knockdown of RGS17 in these tumor types causes both tumor shrinkage and a reduction of metastatic potential of those cells. Our prime objective is to recapitulate that phenotype using chemical tools discovered through the use of High Throughput Screening (HTS). In HTS, we screen tens of thousands of diverse small molecules to identify those that inhibit RGS17s function in cancer cells. We utilized highly sophistocated robotics (check out the UI HTS facility page) to perform these screens. After identification of novel inhibitors, they can be optimized for potency, specificity and safety using medicinal chemistry techniques. On this project, we collaborate with Dr. Zhendong Jin, also in the MNPC division at Iowa, who brings his significant synthetic medicinal chemistry expertise to bear on this project. We also collaborate with Dr. Michael Henry, UI Dept. of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics (and Deputy Director of Basic Research for the Cancer Center), who is an expert in prostate cancer.
Aliasger K. Salem
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Salem's research interests are primarily focused on self-assembling systems, the rational design of novel drug and gene delivery systems and on the development of sophisticated scaffolds for tissue-specific regeneration. In tissue engineering, Dr. Salem's laboratory applies microfabrication techniques to novel biomaterials to provide spatial control over tissue formation and to integrate minimally invasive scaffold delivery strategies. In drug/gene delivery, he is currently exploring the synergistic application of degradable particle technology, CpG oligonucleotides and heat shock proteins for generating sustained immunotherapeutic responses against cancer.
Key Words: Immunotherapy, Gene Delivery, Drug Delivery, Polymeric Biomaterials, Nanotechnology, Self-assembly
Morgan Sayler
Division of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Sayler practices at the East Des Moines Family Care Center, which is a teaching clinic for 18 family medicine physician residents. She is involved with aiding in the resident's research initiatives and other grants and research projects with Iowa Health System-Des Moines. Dr. Sayler's personal research interests include cultural competency, medication adherence, diabetes, and chronic disease state management.
Keywords: family medicine, collaborative practice, ambulatory care, diabetes, medication adherence
Mary Schroeder
Division of Health Services Research
Dr. Schroeder is a Health Economist with an interest in how information and incentives affect treatment decisions. She is currently working on projects assessing treatment effectiveness for a number of health conditions in the elderly population. In previous work, she examined the role of a paid leave policy on labor and health outcomes of women and children. She has also studied the effect of low birth weight on infant mortality.
Bernard Sorofman
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Sorofman’s primary research centers on health behavior theory in the context of treatment-oriented health care practices (actions) by patients. Therefore, studies are directed at the lay-oriented health care system. A second, complementary research interest is related to the system of pharmacy in society as it relates to access and impact on care. The content of the research usually covers one or more of the following areas: self-care, pharmacy, gerontology, rural health care, medication adherence and interdisciplinary teams.
This program of research began with a focus on self-care with an interest in culture and how culturally diverse patients use the health care system. Further research into this area examined, at the margins, the elderly’s well-held health care beliefs and cultural views and the modern technology of health care that was confronting them in their daily lives. As the research began to mature the team found that self-care acculturation was a more gradual process than acceptance of general medical care processes. This resulted in studying the process of self-care response, and ethnic and elderly health care in a broader perspective. More recently this self-care research has evolved into a study of self-perception of care. One set of studies found that patients have a preconceived idea about adverse drug reactions, their experiences moderate their self-care behaviors to adverse events, and they are concerned about the differences between their cultural beliefs and those of their providers when it comes to traditional and complementary medicines.
Dr. Sorofman’s interest in self-care deepened as he began to work with the pharmacist / patient interface and a concept called “patient satisfaction.” It began with the finding that individual self care varied by the purchase situation, that the impact of the pharmacy was important and the physical pharmacy environment influenced satisfaction. This lead to the first health care study on the differences between goods (drugs) and services (care). Being in a dynamic environment for pharmacist practice, Dr. Sorofman examined the pharmacist’s role in immunizations, prescription drug contract bargaining in pharmacy, the pharmacist practitioner, including continuity of care and studies that that defined the pharmacist as the most accessible rural health professional in the United States. One project helped to create the Pharmacy Practice Activity Classification (adopted by the National Library of Medicine as the classification for pharmacy.
Key Words: self-care, pharmacy, medication adherence and interdisciplinary teams
Michael Asley Spies
Our research group investigates the fundamental properties of protein-ligand interactions, from a physical and chemical perspective. Our primary focus is on pharmaceutically relevant enzymes. The application and development of computational chemistry often plays a central role in addressing research questions centering on the discovery and design of novel ligands to validated drug targets. Computational insights are bolstered by in vitro and in vivo assays. Ongoing projects include: i) development of parallelized in silico docking using high performance computing (HPC) on the University of Iowa's Helium cluster, ii) use of steered molecular dynamics to perform highly accurate and precise free energy calculations to accurately rank order drug leads to a number of antimicrobial and antineoplastic targets, iii) use of hybrid QM/MM electronic structure methods to understand remote allosteric modulation of enzyme catalytic power.
Lewis Stevens
Dr. Stevens’ current research interests focus on extending our knowledge of intermolecular interactions for insight into structure-function relationships in small-molecule and bio-inspired pharmaceuticals. The problem of drug delivery and bioavailability presents itself uniquely for each new pharmaceutical application and remains a fundamental question. A clear understanding of material property expression, as it relates to pharmaceuticals, is rooted in a diversity of coupled and competing mechanisms requiring a commensurably diverse scientific approach for transformative insight. My research program, with its cornerstone being the advancement of Brillouin scattering (an analog to Raman scattering) into a multi-dimensional, analytical tool, emphasizes physical chemistry and the interpretation of acoustic, vibrational spectra for expanding our mechanistic understanding of drug-delivery phenomena: protein aggregation, packing polymorphism and stress-induced phase nucleation/transformations. Predictive control of these phenomena extended to current and next-generation pharmaceuticals represents the ultimate goal of my research. Members of my group will gain a multi-disciplinary experience in protein dynamics (folding, aggregation), biopharmaceuticals, mechano- and physical chemistry of solids, laser-light scattering and high-pressure physics with the emphasis being a capacity to draw substantive connections across disciplines for application to pharmaceutics.
Keywords: Polymorphism, protein dynamics, light scattering, solid-state chemistry
CoraLynn Trewet
Pharmacy Practice and Science
My clinical site, Broadlawns Family Medicine Residency Program, actively participates in the research collaborations of Dr. Carter and the College of Medicine including trials such as the CAPTION trial. I serve as the Director of Research for Broadlawns and in this role I facilitate each of the 3rd year family medicine residents in a research project each year. I offer a research elective for 4th year pharmacy students to participate in clinical research at my clinical site.
My own research interest areas include diabetes, lipids and metabolic syndrome, cardiology, ambulatory care, preventative medicine, medication adherence, health coaching, adult learning and the aspects of continuing professional development. My most recent projects have focused on medication adherence. Much of my research has a connection to continuing education of pharmacists as the Director of Continuing Education. I have several research papers and projects collaborating with individuals across the country to advance continuing professional development (CPD) in the profession of pharmacy.
Key words: family medicine residency, medication adherence, continuing professional development, continuing education, adult learning
Julie Urmie
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Dr. Urmie's main area of research is health insurance, particularly prescription drug insurance. She has completed, or is in the process of completing, research on the differences in prescription drug utilization between insured and uninsured individuals, research on the effects of insurance benefit design on patients' decisions about prescription drug use, and research on the effects of health insurance on health care providers. Dr. Urmie's second area of interest is behavioral economics, specifically consumer attitudes and preferences related to the use of medical care. She has studied attitudes toward generic prescription drugs, attitudes toward different insurance benefits, and preferences for using different types of medical care.
Key words: prescription drug use, health insurance, consumer preferences
Peter Veng-Pedersen
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Veng-Pedersen's main research interests include the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) of erythropoietin in pre-mature, very low birth weight babies, the PK/PD of the insulin-glucose system in diabetic and pre-diabetic subjects, and the kinetic assessment and optimization of drug delivery.
Key words: pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, diabetes, insulin, drug delivery, mathematical modeling, optimization.
Mickey L. Wells
Director, University of Iowa Pharmaceuticals
Mick graduated from the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy in 1990 with a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics (major professor Eugene L. Parrott, Ph.D.) and B.S. in pharmacy in 1987. He began working at Glaxo in 1991 as a Senior Scientist. For 16 years, Mick worked in product development at Glaxo/GlaxoWellcome/GlaxoSmithKline. Mick played a key role in the development of several commercial products including Wellbutrin SR 100 and 200 mg Tablets, Wellbutrin XL 150 and 300 mg Tablets, Epivir Oral Liquid, Zantac 25 mg Effervescent Tablets, and Zantac Soft Gelatin Capsules. Also during this time he served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Campbell University School of Pharmacy, was named co-inventor on numerous patent applications, wrote several book chapters, published numerous papers, and presented numerous podium and poster presentations. In 2008 he joined the University of Iowa Division of Pharmaceutical Service (now known as The University of Iowa Pharmaceuticals) as Director. In addition to his responsibilities as Director of The University of Iowa Pharmaceuticals he is also an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics.
Dale Wurster
Division of Pharmaceutics and Translational Therapeutics
Dr. Wurster's research interests include the physics of tablet compression, adsorption and desorption thermodynamics, solution calorimetry, analytical applications of FT-IR, surface characterization by XPS, and micellar catalysis.