University of Nebraska Medical Center

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Faculty

David B. Bylund, PhD is the Principal Investigator for this educational project. He is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at UNMC. His research interests are in neuropharmacology with an emphasis on adrenergic receptors. He is the PI of two NIH grants, one of which is focused on behavioral animal models of depression. He has been the course director of the pharmacology course for medical students as well as for physical therapy students. His teaching expertise includes autonomic pharmacology and receptor theory. He is currently the mentor for two graduate students, and has mentored 7 previous students. He is a past President of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and is listed by ISI as a highly cited pharmacologist (isihighlycited.com).

Peter W. Abel, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and in the Department of Pharmacy Sciences at Creighton University. He is Associate Editor of JPET and Medical Hypothesis and Research. He has published extensively on drug receptors and physiological factors that affect cardiac, vascular and visceral smooth muscle function using isolated tissues. His research includes drug development and he hold patents for novel peptide drugs.

Lida Anestidou, DVM, PhD is a Program Officer in the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research at The National Academies in Washington, DC. She earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in Greece, the country in which she was born and her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology at the University of Texas, Houston.

Charles S. Bockman, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Creighton University. He received the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Medical Class of 2004. His research includes studies of isolated vascular smooth muscle function. Dr. Bockman has studied the role of a variety of receptors (e.g., vasopressin, alpha-2, peptide and histamine receptors) in regulating on contractility.

Jill-Desiree Brederson, PhD, is a Senior Research Pharmacologist in the Neuroscience Department at Abbott, Global Pharmaceutical R&D. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Minnesota, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research has focused on investigating the neurobiology of pain, and identifying novel drug targets for the treatment of pathological pain.

Kurtis G. Cornish, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology at UNMC. He has received numerous awards from students and peers for his outstanding teaching. Dr. Cornish has numerous research publications resulting from studies with in vivo animal models, including primates and instrumented conscious dogs. He is the PI of the Animal Core for PO1 HL622201 (I.H. Zucker, PI).

Bryan F. Cox, PhD is Director, Integrative Pharmacology at Abbott Laboratories and has a strong background in cardiovascular pharmacology. He has been very active in the affairs of American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics serving on the Program C Committee and as the Chair of the Division of Drug Discovery Development, and Regulatory Affairs. He is a member of the Steering Committee and will be giving the final lecture of the Short Course.

Robert S. Dixon, DVM is Director of Comparative Medicine at UNMC. He is Board Certified by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. He is a member of the Council on Accreditation and Chair of the Ad Hoc Site Visitor Selection Committee of AAALAC, International. Dr. Dixon oversees 4 separate facilities at UNMC housing swine, dogs, cats, rabbits, and rodents (including transgenic animals).

Frank J. Dowd, DDS, PhD is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at Creighton University School of Medicine. He has received multiple awards for teaching including nine teaching awards from dental students and five Golden Apple awards from medical students, as well as the Stephen Leeper National Award for Teaching Excellence from Omicron Kappa Upsilon, Honor Dental Society. Dr. Dowd's research involves understanding salivary gland function, including identification of various receptor subtypes and the role of ecto-ATPase in these glands.

S. J. Enna, PhD is Professor and Past Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. He also holds a Professorship in the Department of Psychiatry and is a recent Past President of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. His research interests are in regulatory events in the central nervous system (CNS) and the involvement of various receptors in CNS function. His role in the Short Course is to lead the neuro/behavioral part of the course.

Beth Levant, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics and Associate Scientist in the Smith Mental Retardation Research Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She is also a Research Pharmacologist at the Kansas City Veterans Administration Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Levant has published extensively on dopamine receptors in the central nervous system and their relationship to behavior. She has served as a manuscript reviewer for many neuroscience and pharmacology journals.

William G. Mayhan, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology at UNMC. Research in his laboratory is concerned with examining two aspects of endothelial control of the cerebral microcirculation. These studies are critical for our understanding of the regulation of cerebral blood flow.

Kenneth E. McCarson, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics and Associate Scientist in the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He also serves as Director of the Rodent Behavior Facility, Biobehavioral Measurement Core. He has published extensively on neurokinins and nociception. Dr. McCarson has served as an ad hoc grant reviewer for the Wellcome Trust and as Reviewer for NIH NIDA-K Training and Career Development Review Committee.

David C. McMillan, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at UNMC. His research interest are in the general area of mechanisms of toxicity of drugs and envrionmental chemicals. He is a member of the steering committee.

Eric G Mohler, PhD is a Senior Research Pharmacologist at Abbott Laboratories, Global Pharmaceutical R&D in Chicago. He is a behavioral pharmacologist with research interests in the memory enhancing properties of 5-HT4 agonists and the role of the prefrontal cortex in attention.

Frederick Petty, PhD, MD is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry, Creighton University School of Medicine. In 2003, he received the Creighton University School of Medicine Distinguished Research Career Award. Dr. Petty has studied the pharmacology of antidepressants using the learned helplessness animal model of depression for the past 20 years and is currently funded in this area. He also does clinical studies in posttraumatic stress and depression.

Thomas R. Porter, MD is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Non-Invasive Cardiology Laboratory at UNMC. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Echocardiography. He has published extensively on echocardiography and diagnostic ultrasound. These studies have been done both in animals and humans. His participation in the Short Course will be with echocardiography in experimental animals.

Lynne E. Rueter, PhD is a Group Leader at Abbott Laboratories and has recently received the President's Award there. She has had excellent training in behavior with an M.A. (Psychology) and Ph.D. (Neuroscience) from Princeton University, followed by a postdoc in Neuropsychiatry at McGill University. She has a strong publication record in the neuro/behavioral area.

Myron L. Toews, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at UNMC. His research interests are in cellular signaling, particularly the regulation of adrenergic receptors and the biological roles of lysophophatidic acid. He is a member of the steering committee.

Carol B. Toris, PhD is Professor and Director of Glaucoma Research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at UNMC. She has been involved in studying the pharmacology of numerous anti-glaucoma drugs using various animal models, most notably rabbits, cats and monkeys. She also has been involved in studies on human subjects.

Dennis W. Wolff, PhD is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology at Creighton University and a Research Scientist at the Omaha VA Medical Center. He has published in the areas of cardiovascular, renal and sympathetic nervous system pharmacology. His specific research interests are in atherosclerosis, congestive heart failure and the role of complement fixation in cardiac xenotransplant rejection, with the goal of understanding the molecular basis of disease to define targets for new drug development.

Irving H. Zucker, PhD is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology (formerly the Department of Physiology and Biophysics). He also is the Theodore Hubbard, M.D. Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Research. Dr. Zucker has published widely on research related to cardiovascular function and much of this work has been done with instrumented, conscious animal models. Dr. Zucker is PI on a program project grant on chronic heart failure.

Integrative and Organ Systems Pharmacology (IOSP)