ResearchResearch Overview
The research in the department of Pharmacology can be organized into two highly interrelated areas that include: 1) characterizing the mechanisms by which information is transferred from the extracellular environment to the nucleus between cells within the organism and 2) developing methods and reagents that will interfere with or enhance the information transfer.
Examples of current research projects in these focus areas can be found below; each faculty name also contains a link to additional information about the research in their lab.
Characterizing the mechanisms by which information is transferred from the environment to the nucleus.
Mike Wright: Understanding how protein networks function based upon changes in protein abundance and post-translational modifications (e.g., phosphorylation, ubiquitination, sumolyation) in response to different biological stimuli using quantitative mass spectrometry methods.
Angela Gelli: Determining the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which fungal pathogens use calcium channels to couple host-specific signals to a calcium-calmodulin-calcineurin mediated signaling pathway that is required for fungal growth within the host.
Peggy Farnham: Characterizing changes in chromatin structure and transcriptional regulation that occur in response to differentiation, tumorigenesis, and/or environmental changes using genomic-scale technologies.
Ann Bonham: Understanding how neurons are regulated in normal conditions and how this regulation is altered during pathophysiological conditions such as hypertension, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, depression, and exposure to environmental pollutants.
Anne Knowlton: Understanding the role of protein localization and post-translational modification of heat shock proteins (HSPs) and the estrogen receptor in cardiovascular disease.
Chao-Yin Chen: Understanding how the neurons in the baroreflex pathways change their intrinsic and/or synaptic properties using electrophysiological techniques and gene expression profiling.
Developing methods and reagents that will interfere with or enhance the information transfer
Heike Wulff: Using synthetic medicinal chemistry to develop selective small molecule blockers of both KCa3.1 and Kv1.3, with the goal of inhibiting pathways involved in autoimmune disease and transplant rejection.
David Segal: Developing DNA-recognition tools for use in functional genomics and gene therapy, focusing on the Cys2-His2 class of zinc fingers.