European Pharma Congress

Biography

Twenty years of experience studying of the role of the preotic anterior hypothalamic area in the central control of host defense mechanisms; LPS effects on neurotransmitters and hypothalamic releasing hormones, LPS-fever, and endotoxic hypotension, make me well suited to be the Principal Investigator in the project with Dr. Arnold Johnson as Co-Investigator. The proposal pertains to the elucidation of the role of preoptic hypothalamic endocannbinoids in the lung response to endotoxemia. After five years of postdoctoral research associate/instructor and research assistant professor positions at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee, Health Science Center, respectively, I accepted a tenure track Assistant Professor position at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in the fall of 2005. I have been successful in transitioning from a purely Research environment to one that has more balance of teaching and research. I successfully taught large lecture pathophysiology and pharmacology courses, a small neuroimmunology elective course and a graduate topics course in inflammation and prostaglandins. At the same time, I have developed my lab to the point where it is producing publishable data and is attracting both undergraduate and graduate students. I obtained an R15 AREA grant in the field of LPS fever and fellowships for students in the lab. As a result, I was promoted to Associate professor with tenure. To date, I have mentored 18 undergraduate students (both B.S. and Pharm.D. students) in my lab. Recently, one of these students, Janey James, was accepted at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, Graduate program. Three of my undergraduate students have competed for and received ACPHS Student Summer Research Awards to pursue research with me during the summers. I am also actively participating in mentoring students in the MS Pharmaceutical Sciences program with one of my graduate students successfully defending her thesis last week and accepted into the prestigious PhD program in immunology at Rutgers University. The undergraduate and graduate students in my lab have been major contributors to my research program in the last 9 years as evidenced by the publication/presentations in national and international meetings, and manuscripts under preparation/submitted (11, 12, 13, 15). In addition to these publications and presentations, students from my lab are the first author/co-author on two other manuscripts that are currently under review.

Research Interest

Host defense mechanisms,LPS effects on neurotransmitters