Marvin Schulte, PhD
Department Chair of BPSCI, Professor Fundamentals of Pharmacology, CNS and ANS Pharmacology, General Biochemistry, Advanced Protein Structure and Function, Membrane Biophysics
Office: BTC 113A
Marvin Schulte is Chair and a Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Idaho State University College of Pharmacy. He earned his B.S. degree at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN and his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN in the Department of Biochemistry. Dr. Schulte has held faculty positions at several universities including Louisiana State University College of Pharmacy, Monroe, LA; The University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK; and University of the Sciences, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, Philadelphia, PA. He was department chair for 5 years at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy prior to joining the faculty at the ISU College of Pharmacy.
Schulte has published numerous peer-reviewed publications and has received NIH, NSF and American Heart Association funding for his research focused on the structure and function of ligand gated ion channel receptors. Specific areas of interest include nicotinic receptor modulation, serotonin type 3 receptors in depression, development of new strategies for the treatment of clinical rabies, new drug development for obsessive-compulsive disorders, and other related areas. Dr. Schulte’s laboratory provides training and research experiences to students at all academic levels including high school, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral.
Ali Habashi, PharmD, PhD
Associate Professor
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacokinetics
Office: Eames Complex
I am interested in exploring the concept of drug-disease interaction, and studying the effect of inflammation, in particular, on the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) at enzyme, peptide, and receptor levels in order to fully understand the underlying mechanisms. In different inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, diabetes, mental disorders, and Alzheimer disease, patient’s quality of life has been be affected by the deleterious impact of inflammation. Due to extensive involvement of the RAS in the systemic and local regulatory function of different organs and the significant impact of inflammation on the activation of the RAS, the association of the RAS in different pathological conditions has been reported. The RAS consists of two counteracting arms: tissue protective and tissue toxic. Manipulation of the RAS through augmentation of its tissue protective arm by delivering of its peptide homologs seems promising. Peptides have gained increased interest as biological therapeutics during recent years. However, the clinical application of these agents is still limited due to drug delivery challenges. As a pharmaceutical formulation scientist, I have set focuses of my lab on exploring innovative targeted drug delivery systems for effective, safe, and noninvasive delivery of these therapeutic agents for aiming at several serious inflammatory conditions that RAS involved in their pathology.
My interests include: Basic Pharmacokinetics and Pharmaceutical calculations, Pharmacotherapy, Current Topics in Pharmaceutics and Drug delivery, Principles of Biopharmaceutical Analysis, Responsible Conduct in Research, Physiochemical Basis of Drug Action, Critical Literature Evaluation
James Lai
Professor Emeritus
Department: Biomedical & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Dates of Service: 1991-2020
Rob Myers, PhD
Assistant Professor
Compounding, Dosage Forms, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Development
Dr. Myers has a BS degree in Pharmacy, a MS degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Kansas. He is licensed as a Registered Pharmacist in the state of Idaho. With experience in academic teaching, retail pharmacy, pharmacy compounding, regulatory affairs, and pharmaceutical development/manufacturing, Dr. Myers holds a unique view of pharmaceutical products, their development, and regulatory approval. His experience includes developing and evaluating a variety of drug products including: various ophthalmic products, inhalation solutions, sterile injections, suspensions, delayed release capsules, dry powder inhalers, and nasal sprays.
Dr. Myers has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry focused mainly on activities dealing with Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) issues for IND, NDA, and ANDA submissions. His activities have been mainly focused on: pre-formulation, formulation, scale-up, process development, pharmaceutical product safety data sheets (SDS), health hazard assessments, regulatory submission authoring and project planning. He has interacted with the FDA on various CMC issues at various development stages in face-to-face meetings, telephone conferences, and written communications. Dr. Myers also has more than 12 years of experience working as a compounding pharmacist and is the co-owner of a 503B Outsourcing Facility.
He is an assistant professor in the Biomedical & Pharmaceutical Sciences Department. His teaching responsibilities include dosage form design, compounding, pharmaceutical calculations, pharmacokinetics, and portions of modules and Capstone. Dr. Myers also oversees the extemporaneous compounding lab.
Srinath Pashikanti, PhD
Assistant Professor
Synthetic Medicinal Chemistry, Protein Biochemistry, Bioanalytical Chemistry
Office: Eames Complex
Dr. Pashikanti has an MS degree in Chemistry & Biochemistry from South Dakota State University, an MS and Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from The University of Kansas. Pashikanti Lab utilizes organic chemistry towards synthesis of cell permeable medicinally active analogs. Our current efforts are aimed to develop, synthesize and screen small molecules in targeting ceramide metabolizing enzymes. Ceramide is a bioactive sphingolipid that exhibits anticancer properties in cancer cells. Strategies aimed at increasing the cellular ceramide induce apoptosis in cancer cells. To complement our synthetic efforts, we utilize tools for protein biochemistry to perform in vitro experiments and cell-based assays in determining the biological activity of these analogs in a structure-activity relationship model.
He is an assistant professor in the Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Department. He is actively involved in mentoring graduate and professional pharmacy students. His didactics include Principles of Drug Design and Drug Action, Physicochemical Basis of Drug Action, Principles of Biopharmaceutical Analysis, Advanced Organic Synthesis, Dissertation Research, Thesis Research, Independent Problems in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmaceutical Science Research.
Dong Xu, PhD
Associate Professor, Director of BPSCI Graduate Programs and Admissions
Drug Discovery, Drug Toxicity, Pharmacology, Biomedical Informatics
Office: M 752
Xu Research Lab Website: http://www.dxulab.org/
The overarching goal of Xu Drug Discovery Lab is to address unmet medical and health science needs using state-of-the-art computational and experimental technologies.
Specific research areas are:
- Drug Discovery (Computer-Accelerated Drug Repurposing and Screening);
- Drug-Induced Toxicity Prediction and Prevention;
- Web-Based and Cloud BioComputing Software Development.
