Faculty work to advance the field of pharmaceutical science through state-of-the-art research and discovery in the areas of cellular and chemical biology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and biopharmaceutics and drug delivery.
Explore the list below to learn more about each faculty member's research interest(s).
Active Faculty
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Andrew Coop, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Research Interests: Synthesis of morphine (opioids) analogs and biochemical studies of the mechanisms of cocaine and methamphetamine (stimulants) attenuation -- towards developing new treatments for drug addiction |
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Richard Dalby, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Optimization of drug delivery to the lung and nose to understand what factors affect the performance of pressurized metered dose inhalers, dry powdered inhalers, nebulizers, and nasal sprays |
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Daniel J. Deredge, PhD |
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Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FAAPS, FCP Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Nationally known expert in drug delivery and pharmacokinetics, with research focused on cancer therapy and treatments for disorders of the central nervous system |
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Steven Fletcher, PhD Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Director, MS in Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Rational design of drugs towards new treatments for cancer and inflammation, discovery of traditional small-molecules, harnessing covalent chemistries to accomplish sustained inhibitions of target proteins, as well as leveraging proteolysis-targeting chimera and molecular glue technologies to achieve the targeted degradation of disease-causing proteins |
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Stephen Hoag, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Development of systematic methods for formulating controlled and immediate release tablets, and the use of mathematical models to understand the mass transport processes in hydrogels |
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Chad Johnson, PhD Research Interests: Synthesis of novel, fast-acting antidepressants targeting the muscarinic receptors (mAChRs) for major depressive disorder and opioid analgesics with reduced reinforcement for treatment of drug addiction. |
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Jace W. Jones, PhD Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Development of innovative mass spectrometry based platforms to probe the structure/function dynamics of lipids. Research covers analytical instrumentation, application to model systems, and bioinformatic integration of multidimensional datasets. (Lab Website) |
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Maureen Kane, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Director, Mass Spectrometry Center Research Interests: Development of new bio-analytical technologies for quantitative profiling of metabolites and proteins; elucidating the role of retinoid binding and retinoid metabolism in cancer, diabetes, obesity, and inflammation |
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Berhanu Kibret, PhD Research Interests: Role of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders with a nuanced emphasis on unraveling the intricate involvement of neuronal and glial type 2 cannabinoid (CB2) receptors in neuroimmune and behavioral effects. |
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Alexander MacKerell, PhD Grollman-Glick Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Structure-function relationships of proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids; computer-aided drug design targeting cancer, opioids, immunosuppression, and other diseases; the development of empirical force fields for biological and pharmaceutical compounds (Lab Website) |
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Sarah L.J. Michel, PhD Dean, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Investigation of metalloregulatory proteins that recognize and regulate DNA and RNA, and participate in inflammation, cancer, normal neuronal development, and immune response (Lab Website) |
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Amanda Oglesby, PhD Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Director, PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Investigations into iron-responsive small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) in bacterial pathogens using a combination of genetics, proteomics, metabolomics, in vitro phenotypic analyses, in vivo infection models, and various expression analysis tools to determine how sRNAs are expressed, identify their cellular targets, and characterize their role in pathogenesis (Lab Website) |
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Ryan M. Pearson, PhD Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Developing strategies for treating dysregulated immune responses in areas such as allergy, inflammation, infectious disease, and cancer through the merger of two enabling disciplines, nanotechnology and immune engineering. (Lab Website) |
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James Polli, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Ralph F. Shangraw/Noxell Endowed Chair in Industrial Pharmacy and Pharmaceutics Director, MS and Graduate Certificate in Regulatory Science Research Interests: Studies on the inclusion of bioavailability considerations in drug design and the pharmacokinetic evaluation of oral solid dosage forms |
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C.S. Raman, PhD Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Multifaceted structural and biological studies that combine high-resolution X-ray crystallography with biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, and evolutionary and phylogenetic analyses |
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Scott Riley, PhD Research Interests: Development of machine learning algorithms focused on predictive models for drug discovery/delivery. Microelectronic control of drug delivery using biocompatible platforms |
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Paul Shapiro, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Associate Dean for Research and Advanced Graduate Studies Research Interests: Mechanistic studies of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling pathways and regulation of cancer cell proliferation and inflammation with the goal of discovering novel function-selective MAP kinase inhibitors that specifically block signaling events that drive the pathology of disease but have fewer off-target effects in normal tissue |
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Jana Shen, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Development of molecular simulation and data science tools for drug and materials design; mechanisms of opioid receptors and ion/substrate transporters; reversible and covalent drug design targeting kinases and proteases (Lab Website) |
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Yan Shu, MD, PhD Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Investigation of drug transport mechanisms and metabolism in therapeutics, particularly how different factors such as genetic polymorphisms and diseases affect drug transporters, metabolizing enzymes, and, therefore, drug responses |
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Audra Stinchcomb, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Investigation of the mechanisms and optimization of prodrug skin permeation and microneedle-enhanced skin permeation, as well as the influence of prodrug physicochemical properties on skin flux, distribution, and metabolism |
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Marc Taraban, PhD Associate Research Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Dynamic nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) applications in low and high field to study solvent-solute interactions; water relaxation rate as a probe for noninvasive characterization of biopharmaceuticals; and applications of modern biophysical and structural biology methods, such as DLS, MFI, SAX(N)S, etc., to study structural characteristics and conformational dynamics in biopolymers, molecular assemblies, and dendrimers |
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Hongbing Wang, PhD Professor and Interim Chair, Pharmaceutical Sciences Program Chair, Experimental and Translational Therapeutics Research Interests: Investigations of the molecular mechanisms that govern the xenobiotic-induced regulation of metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters in humans, including metabolism-associated drug-drug interactions, drug-induced liver toxicity, and interaction between pharmacogenomics and nuclear receptor-mediated induction of drug-metabolizing enzymes |
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Angela Wilks, PhD Isaac E. Emerson Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences Program Chair of Chemical and Biological Discovery Research Interests: Addressing the question of how bacterial pathogens acquire and utilize heme as an iron source in survival and virulence has led to the design of patented inhibitors of heme utilization as novel antimicrobials. Utilizing a systems biology approach, this research combines bacterial genetics, metabolomics, biochemical and biophysical tools |
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Patrick Wintrode, PhD Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Characterization of pathological protein conformations using biophysical techniques to elucidate how these contribute to disease; mass spectrometry and computer simulations are also being used to determine how the molecular dynamics of HIV proteins contribute to drug susceptibility and drug resistance (Lab Website) |
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Fengtian Xue, PhD Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Investigation of the mechanism and biological functions of disease-related enzymes using novel cellular imaging agents, as well as rational design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of potential medicinal agents for human diseases such as traumatic brain injury, neurodegeneration, and cancer |
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Bruce Yu, PhD Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Biomaterials engineering research to investigate the link between molecular chirality and material mechanical properties, and research in the area of imaging technologies towards developing imaging agents for multicolor F-19 MRI |
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Wenbo Yu, PhD Research Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Computer-aided drug design (CADD) targeting cancer and other diseases; new CADD methods development and coding; force field development; and molecular level simulation for phenomenon of biological and medicinal interests |
Emeritus Faculty
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Edward Moreton, PhD Professor Emeritus of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Since 1994, Moreton has served as coordinator of faculty exchange between the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the US/Thai Consortium for the Development of Pharmacy Education in Thailand. Past research interests included investigation of neuroprotective drugs for the treatment of brain damage resulting from ischemic stroke or neurotrauma. |
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Jia Bei Wang, PhD Professor Emeritus of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Interests: Understanding brain function, the molecular and cellular basis of mental diseases, and the discovery of new medicine and treatment strategies for these diseases, with a focus on drug addiction research |
| Myron Weiner, PhD Professor Emeritus of Pharmaceutical Sciences |