Focus Areas

Areas of research currently being explored in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Mayo Clinic include:

• Pharmacogenomics (molecular basis of individual variation in response to drugs)
• Cause and effects of DNA instability in human disease
• Supercomputer-based approaches to rational drug design
• Interaction of drugs and hormones with the genome, biology and toxicology of the cholinergic synapse
• Cell signaling in G protein-coupled and tyrosine kinase receptor systems
• Mechanisms of novel targeted cancer chemotherapeutics
• Molecular biology of alcohol metabolism
• Antidepressant drug action and resistance
• Cellular and molecular biology of cardioprotection
• Role of epigenetic changes in degenerative diseases and cancer
• Systems pharmacology

Laboratories

Research groups and laboratories associated with the department include:

• Anticancer Drug Action: Scott H. Kaufmann
• Cell and Molecular Biology of Carcinogenesis: Nicole R. Murray
• Dihydropyrimidine Dehydrogenase Deficiency: Robert B. Diasio
• Epigenetic Etiology of Human Disease: Keith D. Robertson
• Experimental Drug and Therapeutics for Pediatric Brain Tumor: David J. Daniels
• Functional Epigenomics: Alexandre Maia
• Mitochondrial Neurobiology and Therapeutics: Eugenia Trushina
• Molecular Pharmacology of G Protein-Coupled Receptors: Laurence J. Miller
• Neurobiology of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction: Doo-Sup Choi
• Pharmacogenomics: Richard Weinshilboum
• Pharmacogenomics and Drug Targets: Liewei Wang
• Proteases in Cancer: Evette S. Radisky
• Receptor Biology: Steven M. Sine
• Stem Cell and Regenerative Metabolism: Clifford D. Folmes
• Sudden Death Genomics: Michael J. Ackerman
• Vascular Biology: Zvonimir S. Katusic