Pharmacology and Toxicology Faculty at the 2024 Faculty Retreat
PHTX Faculty 2025 Good News
Congratulations to Dr. Lou Barrows, who was recently awarded Emeritus Status. We wish Dr. Barrows all the best in his retirement, and are pleased he will continue his research as an emeritus. December 2025
Congratulations to Dr. TingTing Hong, who was the College of Pharmacy Gem for November--Outstanding Teacher. "Our GEM is currently the co-course coordinator of the IP1 class. Her competent lectures, ability to construct a cohesive and logical series of modules, and caring for her students makes her an ideal candidate for this award." November 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Misty Smith who received an EHS Partner Safety Award at the University of Utah's STEM Safety Day. Congratulations are also in order for Dr. Karen Wilcox, who received the College of Pharmacy Safety Award, and Dr. Jackie Winter, who helped plan a fantastic event and received an EHS Partner Safety Honorable Mention Award.
Dr. Chris Reilly spoke at a special Jason Biggs Memorial Session at the August American Society of Pharmacognosy Meeting. Dr. Biggs, pictured here with Dr. Gary Yost in 2004 at his PhD Graduation, recently passed away at the age of 50 and was honored by ASP. Click on the photo for an In Memorium by his alma mater, University of Guam. August 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Misty Smith and Dr. Farzana Alam, Co-Directors of the new PHTX-MS program, and the rest of the PHTX faculty on a successful launch of the new 1-year degree program. August 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Mei Koh, who was recently awarded a DOD Therapeutic Development Award, PI Koh (Kuda Therapeutics). Click on the photo for more information. She also recently received an HCI ET Pilot Award in January. June 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Rower, whose article "Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Intravenous Magnesium Sulfate in Pediatric Acute Asthma Exacerbations" in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology was selected as the Editor's Choice Article for the month of June. June 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Chris Reilly, who recently received a Margolis Foundation Grant, "Consortium for Environmental Pharmacology and Toxicology Research (CEPTOR)- Great Salt Lake Dust Pulmonary Health Effects Pilot Study." He also recently received a VPR/College of Pharmacy Seed grant for "Smelling smoke: Olfactory and neural circuit mechanisms underlying behavioral effects of wildland-urban interface fire emissions. May 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Cameron Metcalf, who received the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award for the College of Pharmacy for 2025. His undergrad student, Janint (Ani) Camacho received the Outstanding Undergraduate Award as well!
Congratulations to Dr. Misty Smith who received a Teacher of the Year Award for IP2 during the May 2025 College of Pharmacy Graduation ceremonies.
Congratulations to Dr. Karen Wilcox who along with 3 others received the 2025 Distinguished Researcher Award. Karen S. Wilcox, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Utah. “The Distinguished Research Award is one of the most prestigious awards at the university. It honors faculty who have dedicated their lives to research and serving the public,” said Jakob Jensen, Associate Vice President for Research. “The awardees are all high impact researchers with a long track record of working to benefit the people of Utah.” May 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Misty Smith and Dr. Cameron Metcalf who received a Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR) grant. This grant will fund their study of minor cannabinoids in seizure models.
Congratulations to Dr. TingTing Hong and her collaborator, Dr. Robin Shaw, who were recently featured in Pioneering the Future: The Science of Healing at U Health for their work on cutting-edge gene therapy that could restore heart function for the 1 in 4 Americans who will develop heart failure. Click on the photo to read more about it. February 2025
Congratulations Dr. Martin Golkowski and Dr. Cameron Metcalf for receiving a College of Pharmacy Seed Grant to investigate changes in protein expression during the development of epilepsy and during chronic seizures. Feb 2025
PHTX Faculty Directory
Farzana Alam, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Louis R. Barrows, PhD
Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Ana Beatriz (Bia) DePaula-Silva, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Martin Golkowski, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology; Investigator, Huntsman Cancer Institute
TingTing Hong, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology; Member, Diabetes & Metabolism Research Center; Investigator, Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research & Training Institute
Kristen A. Keefe, PhD
Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology; Assistant Vice President, Office for Faculty; Associate Dean, Faculty Affairs
Mei Yee Koh, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Cameron Metcalf, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Philip J. Moos, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Randall Peterson, PhD
Professor, Dean of the College of Pharmacy
Christopher Reilly, PhD
Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology; Adjunct Professor, Pediatrics; Adjunct Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Joseph Rower, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology; Associate Director, Center for Human Toxicology; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Misty D. Smith, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology; Sod, Education
Peter J. West, PhD
Research Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Karen S. Wilcox, PhD
Distinguished Professor, Chair, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Jaclyn Winter, PhD
Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
More PHTX Faculty Good News
Congratulations to Dr. Chris Reilly, who is Co-1 on a VPR Remote and Austere Conditions Grand Challenge with PI Dr. Derek Sakata. October 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Jackie Winter, who has been appointed the new 3i Faculty Co-Director, working with Dr. Daniel Leung. The Immunology, Inflammation, and Infectious Disease Initiative (3i) was established in 2017, and has established a campus wide community of over 200 investigators. September 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Chris Reilly, who received the 2024 EHS Partnership Award, recognizing him for his outstanding commitment to safety as a core value and collaboration with EHS. September 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Alessandro Venosa, the Venosa Lab, and all of the organizers of the very successful Mountain West Society of Toxicology Meeting, held at the University of Utah. September 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Cameron Metcalf who will be receiving a grant from CURE for the MIDNITE project with Dr. Mingnan Chen's Lab. Dr. Karen Wilcox is also a Co-Investigator. August 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Jackie Winter, who was awarded Tenure in the Pharmacology and Toxicology Department. July 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Mei Koh, who was promoted to Associate Professor. Mei also recently received a DOD KCRP Idea Award "Targeting iron-sulfur cluster assembli--a novel vulnerability in kidney cancer." July 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Misty Smith on receiving a grant from the Center for Medical Cannabis Research at the U. "Dr. Smith's current research is investigating the therapeutic potential of novel compounds, such as cannabidiol, for the treatment of epilepsy and its comorbidities and characterizing the drug interactions of cannabidiol with other concomitant therapeutics." She is collaborating with Drs. Bia DePaula-Silva, Dr. Joseph Rower, and Dr. Cameron Metcalf on this research. July 2024
Welcome to Dr. Sean Flynn, newly appointed as a Career-line Assistant Professor (Lecturer Track). Sean is currently the director of the Biomedical Research Education Office (BREO) and will continue in those duties. May 2024
Dr. Jackie Winter is featured in the emerging investigators issue of RSC Chemical Biology. Click on the photo to learn more. March 2024
Welcome to Dr. Farzana Alam, a new Research Assistant Professor in our department. Dr. Alam's research interests include educational interest in active learning and AI, and cancer research. Dr. Alam will also be co-directing our new MS Program with Dr. Misty Smith, which will launch in Fall 2025.
Congratulations to the organizers of the wildly successful Park City Epilepsy Meeting, pictured here. This meeting, which happens every 4 years, seeks to explore how innovative breakthroughs in neuroscience can be leveraged to rapidly develop new treatments for people with epilepsy and to encourage junior investigators to pursue a career in epilepsy research. Participants will be mindful of how innovative breakthroughs in neuroscience can contribute to the development of therapies that can address a wide spectrum of epilepsies, and several speakers were selected for their research into rare genetic epilepsies. Back Row: Drs. Peter West, Cameron Metcalf, Kyle Thomson. Front Row: Drs. Misty Smith, Karen Wilcox, Carolina Moncion, Vanja Panic, and Ashwini Sri Hari.
Congratulations to Dr. Mei Koh, who received the "Investigator on the Rise" award at the inaugural University of Utah Innovation Awards. “It is clear that, even in an early stage of her career as an independent investigator, Dr. Koh has already demonstrated an impressive ability to delineate novel pathways, identify novel drug targets, and screen for selective inhibitors for translational studies as potential therapeutics,” said Huntsman Cancer Institute Chief Academic Officer Brad Cairns. “This trajectory of success is even more exceptional when put together with her entrepreneurial dedication.” October 2023
Welcome to Dr. Ana Beatriz (Bia) DePaula-Silva, who joined our department as a new Tenure-line Assistant Professor. Bia will be launching her Neuroimmunology and Neurovirology Lab this Fall, and her NIH-NINDS K22 Phase II was recently funded. September 2023.
Dr. TingTing Hong and Dr. Robin Shaw from the CVRTI received a $13 million MPI SRA award from TikkunLev Inc to support their research. Their work on gene therapy research was recently featured in Nature's social media channels and magazines as well. Click on photo for link. 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Don Blumenthal, who retired from the Department last summer and recently received Emeritus status. September 2023
Congratulations to Dr. TingTing Hong, Associate Professor, who recently was awarded Tenure. July 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Jaclyn Winter, whose 1U4U grant, The Pathogenic Potential of Great Salt Lake Dust, was funded with collaborators Drs. Katharine Walter, Kerry Kelly, and Kevin Perry. Click on photo for more information. 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Kristen Keefe, who was appointed Assistant Vice President, Office for Faculty, University of Utah Health. Dr. Keefe also recently received an Outstanding Teacher of the Year award from the College of Pharmacy. July 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Jaclyn Winter, who was elected to serve on the Academic Senate Executive Committee for a 1-year term. May 2023
Congratulations to Drs. Martin Golkowski, Shannon Buckley, Joshua Anderson, and James Cox, who received VPR RIF funding to purchase a new mass spectrometer for high-throughput proteomics. Martin also spearheads the Proteomics Affinity Group.
Congratulations to Dr. Misty Smith, who was just named to the Utah Medical Cannabis Policy Advisory Board. June 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Peter West and Dr. Marco Bortolato, who were approved for 1 year of funding towards their R01 as a bridge award (R56). R56 awards are High Priority, Short-Term Project awards, funded by the NIH. May 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Karen Wilcox, who was named one of 6 University of Utah Distinguished Professors, recognized for her achievements of exceptional f teaching, research, mentorship and service. Click on the photo for more information. May 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Cameron Metcalf, who along with a collaborator in Colorado, was awarded a Skaggs Scholar Grant. His post doc, Dr. Ashwini Sri Hari, will be working on the grant as well. May 2023
We are thrilled to announce that Drs. Mei Koh and Martin Golkowski, together with the six other members of the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) PPG focus group of the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), were awarded both the Team Science Acceleration Award and GI Cancers Center Pilot Award from the HCI to fund the fight against metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)-driven HCC.
Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Rower, who recently received funding from the Hem/Onc Pharmacy Association and is a Co-I on an R21 investigating the PK of oral buprenorphine for treating patients with opiod use disorder. 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Phil Moos, who was part of a team that has been awarded and HCI Team Science Acceleration Award, along with Drs. Alana Welm, Sam Chesier, and Gabor Marth for their precision oncology approach to identifying actionable drugs for cancer relapse patients. Spring 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Chris Reilly, who was recently selected as an Academy of Toxicological Sciences Fellow. March 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Mei Koh, who was recently awarded a HCI Team Science Acceleration Award (September 2022), an NIH NCI R43 with Kuda Therapeutics, and a grant from the VHL Alliance. January 2023
On Friday, November 18, Dr. Lou Barrows was presented the Friend of Thai Science Award for 2022. The ceremony consisted of a formal presentation, discussion for future collaborations and activities, and a tour of Dr. Barrows's research lab inside the College of Pharmacy. Click on photo for more information. November 2022
Welcome to Dr. Martin Golkowski, a new Tenure-line Assistant Professor in our department, with an appointment at Huntsman Cancer Institute as well. Martin will be setting up his interdisciplinary lab and looks forward to welcoming trainees. Click on the photo for a link to his lab website. October 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Karen Wilcox and her Co-PI Dr. Ryan O'Connell on their NIH R25 award for the Intermountain Doctoral Education to Advance Students (IDEAS) in Neuroscience, a 2 year post baccalaureate program at the University of Utah. IDEAS plans to matriculate their first cohort in July 2023. January 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Karen Wilcox, who recently received the prestigious Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship from The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Click on the photo to read more about it. June 2022
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