Val J. Watts Professor

Specialization: Molecular Pharmacology

Much of the work in his lab has focused on members of the dopamine, cannabinoid, serotonin, and adenosine receptor families.  Studies have examined the pharmacology of these receptors including the characterization of novel ligands that activate these receptors as well as investigating their ability to modulate the activity of their primary effector, the enzyme adenylyl cyclase (AC).  A second area of focus has included examining the effects of persistent Gαi/o-coupled receptor activation in vitro in order to understand and identify molecular changes following chronic drug exposure that may occur in vivo.

Area of Research:

• Biophysical and Computational Chemistry
• Genomics and Systems Biology
• Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology
• Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology

Disease Area:

• Neuroscience
• Cancer
• Metabolism
• Aging
• Infectious Disease
• Immunology
• Drug Addiction
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Rare Diseases

Subject Areas:

• drug addiction
• infectious disease
• neuroscience

Area of research:

• Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology

Areas: Molecular pharmacology and drug discovery of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and adenylyl cyclases.