CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY

Goals: Strengthening existing areas of expertise, and expanding into new areas that have major unmet clinical needs. Continued focus on the discovery and implementation of genomic medicine work, which includes increasing the clinical use of pharmacogenomic testing, discovering novel pharmacogenomic variants, and understanding the functional significance of these variants and their underlying mechanisms. Continuing to elucidate the basic mechanisms that regulate the metabolism and elimination of drugs through the liver and kidney. Continuing efforts in discovering drugs to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease. Expanding disease and therapeutic modeling efforts across a variety of diseases, which means increasing the use of large datasets, such as whole genome and exome sequencing data, and outcomes data from electronic health records. Many of these efforts will continue to focus on populations that have been historically underrepresented in research, such as children, pregnant people, and those belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups.

 

Clinical Areas of Excellence:
Pharmacogenomics; drug-drug interactions; maintenance of the Drug Interactions Flockhart Table, a cytochrome P450 drug-drug interaction website

Education Areas of Excellence:
Sponsoring two fellowship programs; mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; offering graduate courses and a doctoral minor

Research Areas of Excellence:
Pharmacogenomics; translational research in drug response; drug metabolism and interactions; disease and therapeutic response modeling; therapeutic discovery and development; understudied populations

LEADERSHIP & ADMINISTRATION

TODD SKAAR, PHD
Professor of Medicine Interim Division Director

ZERUESENAY DESTA, PHD
Professor of Medicine Associate Division Director

CHRISTINE MCDONALD
Division Administrator

MEENA S. MADHUR, MD, PHD
Division Director, Effective August 15, 2023

FEATURED FACULTY

TYLER SHUGG, PHARMD, PHD
Assistant Research Professor of Medicine

• Completed his postdoctoral fellowship in clinical pharmacology at IU, and was promoted to faculty in January 2022
• K-23 grant was funded on the first submission
• Passed his certification exam by the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology, and joins four other faculty associated with our division who are board-certified in clinical pharmacology

FELLOWSHIPS

Clinical Pharmacology Fellowship (two years)
Director: Zeruesenay Desta, PhD, and Michael Eadon, MD

Disease and Therapeutic Response Modeling Program
Director: Sara Quinney, PharmD, PhD

NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS

Shugg T, Ly RC, Rowe EJ, Philips S, Hyder MA, Radovich M, Rosenman MB, Pratt VM, Callaghan JT, Desta Z, Schneider BP, Skaar TC. Clinical Opportunities for Germline Pharmacogenetics and Management of Drug-Drug Interactions in Patients With Advanced Solid Cancers. JCO Precis Oncol. 2022 Feb;6:e2100312. doi: 10.1200/PO.21.00312. PMID: 35201852; PMCID: PMC9848543.

Reagan AM, Christensen KE, Graham LC, Bedwell AA, Eldridge K, Speedy R, Figueiredo LL, Persohn SC, Bottiglieri T, Nho K, Sasner M, Territo PR, Rozen R, Howell GR. The 677C > T variant in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase causes morphological and functional cerebrovascular deficits in mice. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2022 Dec;42(12):23332350. doi: 10.1177/0271678X221122644. Epub 2022 Sep 1. PMID: 36050860; PMCID: PMC9670012.

Bamfo NO, Lu JB, Desta Z. Stereoselective Metabolism of Bupropion to Active Metabolites in Cellular Fractions of Human Liver and Intestine. Drug Metab Dispos. 2023 Jan;51(1):54-66. doi: 10.1124/ dmd.122.000867. Epub 2022 May 5. PMID: 35512805; PMCID: PMC9832377.

ASSOCIATED RESEARCH CENTERS

• Indiana Institute for Personalized Medicine (IIPM)
• Indiana Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Disease and Therapeutic Response Modeling Program
• Regenstrief Institute
• Stark Neurosciences Research Institute
• Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI)
• IU Melvin & Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center