Research

uconn student in lab

UConn's School of Pharmacy allows students to customize their studies to align with their research interests, collaborate with world renowned faculty, and pursue specialized training to complement their core studies. Whether you are interested in a Pharmaceutical Sciences or Pharmacy Practice path you will find innovative work being done in our labs, and collaborative work.

Research and Opportunities

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Labs and Research

Always moving the needle on pharmaceutics, pharmacology and toxicology, medical chemistry. Every member of the UConn School of Pharmacy's Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences is involved in scientific research.

Current Research Areas

  • Drug Design & Discovery | DDD
  • Drug Metabolism & Metabolomics | DMM
  • Behavioral & Molecular Pharmacology | BMP
  • Mechanistic Toxicology | MT
  • Nanomedicine & Drug Delivery | NDD
  • Epigenetics & Noncoding RNA | EN
  • Pharmaceutical Technology & Manufacturing | PTM
  • Biomedical & Molecular Imaging | BMI

Faculty Research

(organized by foci)

Pharmaceutics

Raman Bahal NDD PTM
Research Focus: New delivery strategies for synthetic nucleic acid analogues, develop novel gene correction based reagents. Selectively target oncogenic microRNAs for cancer therapy, and other microRNAs for treating genetic metabolic disorders. Bahal Lab


Quanying Bao NDD PTM
Research Focus: Formulation design and manufacturing (ointments, long-acting injectables, intrauterine systems, hydrogels, liposomes, pellets),in vitro and in vivo performance, targeted drug delivery, controlled and sustained drug delivery.


Robin Bogner PTM
Research Focus: Freeze-drying process modeling and optimization, formulation and performance of pharmaceutical solids -- both freeze-dried parenterals and oral dosage forms, amorphous drug solubility, reconstitution of lyophilized protein therapeutics, stability of compounded preparations.


Diane Burgess NDD PTM

Research Focus: Drug delivery (microspheres, nanoparticles, liposomes, emulsions, hydrogels); in vitro and in vivo performance testing; continuous manufacturing of complex parenterals; implantable sensors for metabolic monitoring. Burgess Lab


Bodhi Chaudhuri PTM
Research Focus: Pharmaceutical Technology, Multi-Scale Modeling of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Systems, Transport Phenomena in Complex Fluids, Discrete Element Method, Powder Technology, and 3D printing. Chaudhuri Lab


Antonio Costa NDD PTM
Research Focus: Continuous manufacturing approaches for nanoparticle drug products, including GMP system design; Formulation and development of nanoparticles (e.g. liposomes, LNPs and polymeric micelles); Analytical techniques for nanoparticle characterization.


Na Li NDD PTM

Research Focus: Oral drug delivery, enabling formulation and process development of poorly-soluble drugs, interactions with the human gastrointestinal environment including the gut microbiome. Li Lab


Xiuling Lu NDD PTM BMI
Research Focus: Formulation development, characterization and assessment, drug delivery systems, multifunctional nanocarriers for improved cancer therapy, theranostic nanomedicine. Lu Lab

Pharmacology and Toxicology

Brian Aneskievich BMP
Research Focus: Molecular pharmacology of cell membrane and nuclear receptor signaling control over regulation of gene expression relevant to chronic inflammatory diseases, defects in differentiation, and cancer proliferation.


David Grant DMM
Research Focus: Development of analytical and computational tools that allow high-through-put chemical structure determination. These tools advance research in metabolomics, biomarker identification and drug design.


José Manautou DMM MT
Research Focus: Identification and characterization of novel genetic determinants of susceptibility to chemical hepatotoxicity, regulation of liver transporters, chemical models of hepatoprotection.


Theodore Rasmussen DMM MT EN
Research Focus: Personalized medicine, stem cell research, and epigenetics as related to cholesterol dysfunction, birth defects, and reproductive biology.


Gregory Sartor DMM BMP EN DDD
Research Focus: Animal models of drug addiction; epigenetics, cell type-specific analysis, and drug discovery.


L. Cody Smith MT BMP
Research Focus: Air pollution and respiratory system toxicology, immunology and inflammatory signaling mechanisms, sex steroid signaling and sex differences in inflammation, mouse models.


Xiaobo Zhong EN BMI
Research Focus: Mechanistic roles of long non-coding RNAs in postnatal liver maturation, alteration of drug metabolism in adults by drug exposure at early life, interindividual variations on drug metabolism and personalized medicine.

Medicinal Chemistry

Chat Abeywickrama BMI DDD
Research Focus: Development of small-molecule fluorescent dyes for biomedical imaging and diagnostic applications, fluorophore-guided drug delivery and trafficking, and (bio)chemical sensing dyes.


M. Kyle Hadden DDD
Research Focus: Early stage drug development focusing on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of small molecules as therapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer. Hadden Lab


Hunmin Jung DDD
Research Focus: Structure-guided development of: 1. anticancer agents targeting DNA lesion repair and de novo nucleotide biosynthesis pathways; 2.  modulators that inhibit or enhance the incorporation of non-natural nucleotides into DNA or RNA; 3. antidiabetic agents/biomarkers targeting glucose sensing transcription factors; 4. antibacterial/antiviral agents targeting DNA repair/bypass and nucleotide metabolism. Jung Lab website under development. Jung Lab


Olga Vinogradova DDD
Research Focus: Structural Biology, Protein-Protein/Protein-Ligand Interactions, Rational Drug Design, Integral Membrane Proteins and Across-membrane Signal Transduction, Nanodiscs, NMR. Vinogradova Lab


Andrew Wiemer DDD BMP
Research Focus: Discovery of drugs and drug targets related to cancer and immunology. Wiemer Lab


Dennis Wright DDD
Research Focus: The design, synthesis and development of small molecule therapeutics primarily for the treatment of infectious disease and cancer.

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Pharmacy Practice Collaborative Research Groups

UConn School of Pharmacy faculty influential advocates for new models of care. Some of the concerns we have addressed include problems associated with polypharmacy, medication errors, and patient compliance. Our knowledge of the industry comes from depth and breadth of experience. Our alliances, research and leadership roles translate to industry change to positively benefits communities, nation and world wide.

Current Research Groups

UConn Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evidence Synthesis (HOPES)

The UConn Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evidence Synthesis (HOPES) group codifies collective strength in the areas of outcomes research: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Economic Modeling, Clinical Trials, and Observational Research. HOPES provide the federal government and their key stakeholders (payors, clinicians, national medical and patient advocate organizations, and patients) with comparative effectiveness assessments that support evidence-based decisions.

Learn More about HOPES

Performance Improvement for Safe Medication Management (PRISM)

Improving the health of the people of the State of Connecticut, the Northeast, and beyond through safe and effective medication use that involves interdisciplinary educational programs, community-based research collaborations, health care transformation policy opportunities,and team-based care delivery.

Learn More about PRISM

New England Pharmacy Community Research Network

A collaboration between pharmacists, pharmacy researchers, pharmacies, prescribers, patients, payers, policy makers, and other stakeholders to advance and enhance pharmacy research and patient care —
improving patient outcomes.

Learn More about New England Pharmacy Community Research Network

Pharmacy Practice Faculty Publications

Independent Student Research Opportunities

UConn School of Pharmacy offers the opportunity to get involved in independent research should you wish to explore any area in more depth. Whether you are interested in pharmacy industry, a focus on government legislation, research on addiction or pharmaceuticals for cancer, our faculty will help to guide your study. Independent research students are paired with a faculty advisor that helps to guide an enriching and successful experience.

Independent Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Students interested in exploring independent research opportunities in Pharmaceutical Sciences can review faculty research above and contact pharmacy@uconn.edu with their area off interest

Independent Research in Pharmacy Practice

Students interested in pursuing pharmacy practice related research can review the collaborative centers above and contact pharmacy@uconn.edu with their area of interest.

Research Centers and Programs

Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty are involved in many different multifaceted research programs associated with UConn and industry around the region and nation. These centers of research excellence provide faculty with connections to complementary leaders in pharmacy industry.

Center for Pharmaceutical Processing Research (CPPR)

The Center for Pharmaceutical Process Research (CPPR) is a collaborative program that brings together select universities and industry colleagues for cooperative research projects between academia and industry. The mission of the Center for Pharmaceutical Process Research is to foster an interdisciplinary approach to pharmaceutical processing-related research, to catalyze interaction between industrial and academic scientists, and to make the application of a basic science approach to formulation and manufacture of drug products an integral part of graduate pharmaceutical education.

cppr.uconn.edu

Technology Incubation Program (TIP)

By coupling UConn's world-class research resources, facilities, and business support services to a network of experienced investors and entrepreneurs, we help launch startups ready to transform their respective markets.

Technology Incubation Program (TIP)

Research Facilities

Our research facilities offers the nuanced needs to conduct cross-disciplinary research and unprecedented growth in academies, research, and clinical care.

research lab with equipment

Harold G. Hewitt Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Laboratories

Research in medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutics, behavioral pharmacology, and pharmacology/toxicology is conducted in laboratories customized for the specialized requirements of each researcher. The laboratories contain multiple autoclaves, tissue culture facilities, state-of-the-art hooding and ventilation systems, and freeze-drying capabilities. Harold G. Hewitt Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Laboratories also houses a nuclear magnetic resonance facility and protein x-ray crystallography facility.

Location:
69 North Eagleville Road, Storrs, CT
Pharmacy building - north wing on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors

UConn’s Innovation Partnership Building

In addition, UConn's Innovation Partnership Building at Tech Park on campus houses business partners from around the globe who team with our faculty to conduct innovative, cross-disciplinary research in fields ranging from manufacturing to biomedical engineering to cybersecurity.

Location:
159 Discovery Dr, Storrs, CT

Learn more at techpark.uconn.edu

UConn Health and JAX lab building exterior

UConn Health and Jackson Laboratories

At nearby Farmington, our UConn Health campus, also home to The Jackson Laboratory, is an integrated academic medical center that is entering an era of unprecedented growth in all three areas of its mission: academics, research, and clinical care.

Location:
263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT

highschool outreach

Harold G. Hewitt Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Laboratories

The Harold G. Hewitt Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Laboratories are located in the north wing of the building on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors. Medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutics, behavioral pharmacology, and pharmacology/toxicology research is conducted in laboratories customized for the specialized requirements of each researcher. The laboratories contain multiple autoclaves, tissue culture facilities, state-of-the-art hooding and ventilation systems, and freeze-drying capabilities. We also have a nuclear magnetic resonance facility and a protein x-ray crystallography facility.

UConn’s Innovation Partnership Building

In addition, UConn's Innovation Partnership Building at Tech Park on campus houses business partners from around the globe who team with our faculty to conduct innovative, cross-disciplinary research in fields ranging from manufacturing to biomedical engineering to cybersecurity.

JAX and UConn Health Farmington, CT

UConn Health and Jackson Laboratories

At nearby Farmington, our UConn Health campus, also home to Jackson Laboratories, is an integrated academic medical center that is entering an era of unprecedented growth in all three areas of its mission: academics, research, and clinical care.