TTUHSC’s Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy establishes new Brain Drug Discovery Center

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) – The Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy at Texas Tech University Health Science Center (TTUHSC) in Amarillo has developed the Brain Drug Discovery Center after more than a decade of growth and recruitment efforts.

The research center was established from two existing pharmacy school centers, including the Center for Blood-Brain Barrier Research and the Cancer Biology Research Center.

According to TTUHSC, the Brain Drug Discovery Center will focus on discovering new drug targets and treatments for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.

The center will combine the long-standing expertise and blood-brain barrier research of the existing centers with the school's new faculty researchers in the area of ​​brain drug discovery.

“The primary focus will be on building a robust pipeline of collaborative projects with faculty from the TTUHSC School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine and the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine,” said Thomas Abbruscato, Ph.D., the first director of the Brain Drug Discovery Center.

The goal of the center is to generate and coordinate interdisciplinary efforts in medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, drug delivery, formulation and drug repurposing to translate TTUHSC's basic research into therapeutic interventions for human and animal diseases.

“The Brain Drug Discovery Center will facilitate the development of biologically active small molecules that address a variety of protein targets,” Abbruscato said. “Because it is not limited to a specific indication, the center can provide expertise to faculty in a variety of areas of brain disease.”

The first members of the Brain Drug Discovery Center include:

• Thomas Abbruscato, Ph.D.
• Abraham Al-Ahmad, Ph.D.
• Mahmoud Ahmed, Ph.D.
• Ulrich Bickel
• Hiranmoy Das, Ph.D.
• Nadia German, Ph.D.
• Lance McMahon, Ph.D.
• Samuel Obeng, Ph.D.
• Quentin Smith, Ph.D.
• Heidi Villalba, Ph.D.
• Ming-Hai Wang, MD, Ph.D.
• Jenny Wilkerson, Ph.D.

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