New faculty spotlight: Aaron Mohs, Ph.D.

Aaron Mohs, Ph.D., is a new faculty member at UNMC. Here’s a brief rundown of his background and the expertise he brings to campus.

• Name: Aaron Mohs, Ph.D.
• Hometown: Webster, S.D.
• New title and department at UNMC: Assistant professor, pharmaceutical sciences, College of Pharmacy

Research/professional interests:
Our research is focused on the development of new fluorescent imaging contrast agents to guide surgical removal of tumors. We have also developed instruments that could one day be used in the operating room to see these contrast agents in real time. As opposed to a paint by numbers, this is a cut-by-color technology. We also are interested in developing new drug delivery systems that target tumor metabolism.

How I fell in love with pharmaceutical research:
I fell in love with pharmaceutical research during a summer internship in a pharmaceutical science program. I was fascinated at how chemistry, biology, and medicine could be integrated into a single discipline. The passion for imaging research was solidified during my graduate and postdoctoral training, where I could see the real-life application of what we were doing in lab and how it could hopefully one day benefit people.

Teaching activities:
My teaching interests are in drug delivery, drug stability, and imaging.

Previous positions:

• Assistant professor, biomedical engineering, Wake Forest-Virginia Tech School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences
• Cancer Nanotechnology Distinguished Fellow, biomedical engineering, Emory-Georgia Tech

Education:

• Ph.D., pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical chemistry, University of Utah
• B.A., chemistry, St. John’s University/College of St. Benedict, Collegeville, Minn.

Honors:

• Innovation of the Year (Integrated Imaging and Spectroscopy System for Image-Guided Surgery) – awarded by the Emory Office of Technology Transfer.
• Wolf Prize – awarded to a University of Utah College of Pharmacy graduate student for excellence in teaching, highest award given by the College of Pharmacy.
• Jeffrey A. Fox Award – awarded to University of Utah pharmaceutics graduate student for dedication and service to department.
• PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship awarded by the PhRMA Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Three things you don’t know about me:

• I am the baby of a family of eight siblings.
• During college, I studied abroad in Salzburg, Austria, for a semester.
• I love to play golf.