Department of
Pharmaceutical Sciences
The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at WSU Spokane is dedicated to advancing pharmaceutical science through research and education.
Research areas
Research areas include pharmacogenetics, pharmacogenomics and proteomics, drug development and novel targets, and drug delivery mechanisms including and nanotechnology.
Research themes
Research themes include studies of drug metabolism, cancer, tobacco biomarkers and cessation, cell signaling, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammation, and aging.
Education
We are committed to developing outstanding health care professionals by educating the next generation of pharmacists in the WSU PharmD Program. The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences teaches courses in Integrated Pharmacology, Pharmacokinetics, Pharmaceutics, Compounding, Drug Development, and Pharmacogenomics, and actively participates in the training of PharmD students in research.
We are also committed to educating the next generation of researchers through the PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Medicine Graduate Program. Students are prepared for careers in academia, science and health care research through rigorous coursework and extensive laboratory experience. Students work alongside faculty mentors within established laboratories of specialized and focused research. See Graduate Programs for more details.
The department is also focused on the training of students in the PharmD/PhD Program. This program is geared to enable PharmD students to obtain both their PharmD and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Medicine in a timely manner.
Meet the Interim Chair
Dr. Meier’s laboratory studies the molecular pharmacology of signal transduction, with a recent focus on GPCR receptor-mediated mechanisms by which omega-3 fatty acids inhibit the growth of certain cancers. Model systems include several types of cancer cells, including prostate and breast cancer. There is particular interest in lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a ligand for GPCRs, as an autocrine and paracrine mediator of growth and inflammation. Other interests include proteins involved in adhesion signaling (e.g., FAK, CCNs) and their regulation by LPA, epidermal growth factor, and other growth factors.
See Dr. Meier’s faculty bio page for more details.
Faculty and their research
See individual investigator’s faculty bio pages (click on names below) for more details.
Ayesha Ahmed, assistant professor and compounding lab instructor. Research expertise in toxicology for preclinical drug development, metal-induced oxidative stress and tissue injury.
Salah Ahmed, professor. Research expertise in rheumatoid arthritis and vascular inflammation.
Gang Chen, associate professor and director of the mass spec core. Research expertise in tobacco carcinogen metabolism and cancer susceptibility.
Zhaokang Cheng, assistant professor. Research expertise in cardiovascular disease, cell death and signal transduction.
John Clarke, assistant professor. Research expertise in toxicology, drug disposition (emphasis on transporters), and liver disease.
Sayed Daoud, associate professor. Research expertise in cancer genomics and experimental therapeutics.
Travis Denton, assistant professor. Research expertise in synthetic medicinal chemistry, tobacco cessation, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
Darrell Jackson, associate professor. Research expertise in neurobiology, delay neuronal death, receptor trafficking, and signal transduction.
Philip Lazarus, professor. Research expertise in metabolic pathways, carcinogenesis, gene-environment interactions, and pharmacogenetics and drug metabolism.
Susan Marsh, associate professor. Research expertise in the role of exercise hypertension and/or diabetes on development of cardiac hypertrophy.
Kay Meier, interim chair, professor and associate dean for faculty and student development. Research expertise in signal transduction, phospholipid metabolism, protein phosphorylation, G protein coupled receptors, and cancer biology.
Senthil Natesan, assistant professor. Research expertise in computational drug design with major focus on membrane permeability, metabolism, and transport of drugs.
Mary Paine, professor. Research expertise in drug metabolism and transport, pharmacokinetic modeling and simulation, drug-drug interactions, natural product-drug interactions, and clinical pharmacokinetic studies
Bhagwat Prasad, associate professor. Research expertise in quantitative proteomics, metabolomics and physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling.
Connie Remsberg, associate professor and compounding lab instructor. Research expertise in membrane drug transporters – drug-drug interactions.
Shuwen Wang, associate professor and director of the genomics core. Research expertise in protein biochemistry, molecular biology, fly genetics, developmental biology, stem cell biology, mouse genetics, and viral immunology.
Zhenjia Wang, associate professor. Research expertise in developing nanoparticle-based therapeutics for improved therapies to inflammatory diseases (sepsis, stroke, and lung infections) and cancer.
Boyang (Jason) Wu, assistant professor. Research expertise in cancer biology, signal transduction, and anticancer drug development.
Hui Zhang, assistant professor. Research expertise in tumor biology, tumor Immunology and tumor immunotherapy.
Jiyue Zhu, professor. Research expertise in molecular biology of cancer and aging, stem cell biology, and modeling human diseases in mice.
United States Transuranium & Uranium Registries (USTUR) Faculty
Maia Avtandilashvili, assistant professor. Research expertise in radiation protection, internal radiation dosimetry and biokinetic modeling of radionuclides.
George Tabatadze, assistant professor. Research expertise in radiation physics, radiation detection and measurements, radiation protection, and internal dosimetry.
Sergei Y. Tolmachev, professor and director. Research expertise in actinide radiochemistry and analysis, radiation protection, internal dosimetry, and biokinetic modeling.
Affiliate Faculty
Clark Kogan, scholarly assistant professor, WSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Research expertise in the application of statistical methodology to medicine and agriculture.
Weimin Li, associate professor, WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. Research expertise in breast cancer, tumor microenvironment, 3D tissue culture, molecular regulation of gene transcription and cell growth.
Jingru Sun, associate professor, WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. Research expertise in neuroimmunology, microbiology, molecular biology, and aging.