Dr. Ruan is a medical scientist with multidiscipline-training in clinical and basic medicine, and biomedical sciences, including Molecular biology, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry. His major research areas consist of the molecular and cellular regulation of lipid metabolites in inflammation, cancer and vascular diseases. Dr. Ruan's projects are competitive as evidenced by his Continuous receipt of grants since 1993, which have included three American Heart Association Grants (Received in 1993, 1995, and 2010) and six NIH grants (received in 1996 R01, 1999 PPG project 4 as PI, 2000 R01, 2004 (Aug) R01, 2004(Dec) R01, and 2009 RC1). In particular, Dr. Ruan's newly engineered hybrid enzymes (with triple catalytic functions that specifically control the biosynthesis of the vascular protective mediator, prostacyclin, and the inflammatory/carcinogenic mediator, prostaglandin E2) have received a great amount of attention from the public. Since 2006, his department's fusion enzymes’ discovery has been reported and featured by local, national, and international news, newspapers, web news, and have led us to file three patents. In addition, the growing interest in these enzymes has brought about invitations to present the discovery in national and international conferences. These activities and their communicable influences have directly and indirectly been transmitted to the Department, the College of Pharmacy and University of Houston, and thereby increased its awareness and recognition.

Medicinal chemistry, Pharmacology, Experimental Therapeutics and Pharmacoinformatics

Dr. Fatemeh Akhlaghi has received the Doctor of Pharmacy from University of Mashhad, Iran in 1990 and continued her studies receiving Doctor of Philosophy from University of Sydney, Australia in 1997.She has been the Post doctoral research associate in the University of Sydney, Australia in the year 1998.Later she worked as a Senior Clinical Scientist at University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and presently working for The University of Rhode Island as a Professor and Ernest Mario Distinguished Chair in Pharmaceutics.

Research interests include (1) the effect of diabetes mellitus on drug disposition and (2) pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of immunosuppressive agents used in organ transplantation.

Dr.Ziaeddin Shariat-Madar has received the Ph.D. from Medical University of Ohio and later worked as an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and as Research Associate Professor in the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.Presently he is Director of University of Mississippi Light Microscopy Core

Dr. Shariat-Madar is a biomedical scientist whose research has focused on the physiological role of plasma kallikrein kinin system (KKS), including application to human health and disease. We have been a major laboratory in the study of prolylcarboxypeptidase (PRCP), KKS activator, at the molecular, protein, cellular, and animal level. We aim to examine PRCP-induced KKS activation and its related function to better characterize its physiologic influence, such as blood pressure regulation, inflammation, and the metabolic syndrome. We are interested in an integration of the basic biochemistry of KKS with cell physiology which generates and maintains the local hyperacidity surrounding tumor and inflammatory cells.

The primary focus of my research is on the understanding of how genetic and environmental factors coordinately regulate the expression of genes involved in drug response and oncogenic switch. The work from this laboratory has been well cited with several original research papers being cited more than 100 times. Several research findings were reported by multiple media outlets such as USA Today and Doctor Guide. Dr. Yan is an author of Encyclopedia of Drug Metabolism and Interactions. This book has six volumes, represents a global effort, and presents more than 120 chapters by prominent authors from 11 different countries: USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore, India, Japan, France, Denmark, and Switzerland. In the past decade, the research activities are designed to answer such questions as: how does genetic or environmental factor contribute to differences in drug-response? How does transcriptional regulation switch from physiological (e.g., drug-metabolism) to pathological response (oncogenesis)? And how do drugs, hormones and herbs alter therapeutic activity when used together? In recent years, this laboratory has been focusing four projects: (Project 1) Molecular Biology of Carboxylesterases; (Project 2) Signaling of the Pregnane X receptor; (Project 3) Functional Characterization of DEC Transcription Factors; (Project 4) Herb-Drug Interactions

Genetic-based alterations on drug response; Drugs, herbs, hormones, and their interactions; Cancer: initiation, progression and chemoresistance

Dr. Shailendra Dukie has received his PhD degree in Pharmacology and presently working as a Deputy Head of School (Research) in Grriffith University, Australia

Tumour resistance to chemo- and radiotherapy, Hypoxic modulation of cell signalling pathways and Free radical involvement in cancer and other diseases

Dr. Khaled Saad has completed his MD (Clinical Toxicology) at the age of 33 years from University of Tanta ,Faculty of Medicine (Egypt). He is a full prof., supervised and discussed many more than 10 master and MD projects in the Universty. He has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals and served as a director of Tanta Poison Control Center

Clinical Toxicology and Clinical Research

Twenty years of experience studying of the role of the preotic anterior hypothalamic area in the central control of host defense mechanisms; LPS effects on neurotransmitters and hypothalamic releasing hormones, LPS-fever, and endotoxic hypotension, make me well suited to be the Principal Investigator in the project with Dr. Arnold Johnson as Co-Investigator. The proposal pertains to the elucidation of the role of preoptic hypothalamic endocannbinoids in the lung response to endotoxemia. After five years of postdoctoral research associate/instructor and research assistant professor positions at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee, Health Science Center, respectively, I accepted a tenure track Assistant Professor position at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in the fall of 2005. I have been successful in transitioning from a purely Research environment to one that has more balance of teaching and research. I successfully taught large lecture pathophysiology and pharmacology courses, a small neuroimmunology elective course and a graduate topics course in inflammation and prostaglandins. At the same time, I have developed my lab to the point where it is producing publishable data and is attracting both undergraduate and graduate students. I obtained an R15 AREA grant in the field of LPS fever and fellowships for students in the lab. As a result, I was promoted to Associate professor with tenure. To date, I have mentored 18 undergraduate students (both B.S. and Pharm.D. students) in my lab. Recently, one of these students, Janey James, was accepted at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, Graduate program. Three of my undergraduate students have competed for and received ACPHS Student Summer Research Awards to pursue research with me during the summers. I am also actively participating in mentoring students in the MS Pharmaceutical Sciences program with one of my graduate students successfully defending her thesis last week and accepted into the prestigious PhD program in immunology at Rutgers University. The undergraduate and graduate students in my lab have been major contributors to my research program in the last 9 years as evidenced by the publication/presentations in national and international meetings, and manuscripts under preparation/submitted (11, 12, 13, 15). In addition to these publications and presentations, students from my lab are the first author/co-author on two other manuscripts that are currently under review.

Dr. Feleder has a long-standing interest in uncovering the mechanisms underlying the body's response to immune challenges, i.e., how the central nervous system controls the physiologic functions that protect the body from the harmful effects of infectious agents. In 2008, Dr. Feleder was awarded a three year research grant totaling $231,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the effects of the spleen in managing fever.