Alan V. Smrcka, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology and of Oncology
Dr. Smrcka received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Connecticut, an M.Sc. in Botany at Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Arizona. He did a postdoc in the Pharmacology Department of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center with Dr. Paul Sternweis before joining the Pharmacology faculty at the University of Rochester in 1994.

Research Assistant Professors

Sundeep Malik, Ph.D.
Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1994

Postdoctoral Fellows

Rachel K. Niemer, Ph.D.
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 2007

Graduate Students

Axel L. Dessal
B.S., University of Buenos Aires, 2001
M.B.A., University of Rochester, 2003
M.S., University of Rochester, 2007

Axel Dessal received a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Buenos Aires and an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree at the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, in close collaboration with the Department of Chemistry. His goal is to enhance the computational methods that we use to find the small compounds that bind to G-beta-gamma, and to apply them to find small compounds that bind to other WD40-repeat proteins.

Pramodh Seneviratne
B.S., University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2003
M.S., University of Rochester, 2007

Pramodh Seneviratne is a second-year graduate student in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He received his Bachelor's degree in Botany from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka where he worked on the characterization and detection of Banana Streak virus. Since joining the lab, Pramodh has been working on understanding the mechanisms for selective inhibition of Gβγ using small molecule chemical inhibitors.

Technical Staff

	Michael B. Burroughs
	Nancy C. Ward

Past Postdoctoral Fellows and Graduate Students

Tabetha M. Bonacci
B.S., St. Norbert College, 2000
M.S., University of Rochester, 2002
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 2006


Tabetha Bonacci was a graduate student in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology. Tabetha received a B.S. degrees in biology and chemistry from St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin. Tabetha received her Ph.D. in 2006 and is currently doing a postdoctoral fellowship at Eli Lilly and Company.

Jose Font, Ph.D.
Ph.D., Washington University, 1985

Jose is now working at the University of New Mexico.

Mousumi Ghosh, Ph.D.
Ph.D., University of Calcutta, 1997

Mousumi Ghosh was a postdoctoral research fellow who joined the laboratory in February 2001. Mousumi received her Ph.D. from the University of Calcutta in India. She did extensive work on the biochemical characterization of prokaryotic enzymes. Mousumi applied that expertise to the study of G protein structure and function in our laboratory.

David M. Lehmann, Ph.D.
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 2005

David Lehmann is a postdoctoral research fellow who joined the laboratory in April 2005.  David received a B.S. in Biology from Colorado State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in the Toxicology Training Program.    David’s research focuses on G beta-gamma binding small molecules and how they modulate signaling. David is now a Scientist at Bausch and Lomb Laboratories in Rochester, New York.

Emily A. Oestreich
B.S., Tennessee Technological University, 2002
M.S., University of Rochester, 2005
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 2008

Emily Oestreich is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Pharmacology.  Emily received a B.S. in Chemistry from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, TN, in 2002.  She is studying the physiological regulation and function of phospholipases C epsilon in cardiac myocytes using a PLCe knockout mouse model.  Emily is currently pursuing postdoctoral studies at the University of North Carolina with Dr. David Siderovski.

Chujun Yuan
M. Med., Peking Union Medical College, 1997
M.S., University of Rochester, 2004
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 2007

Chujun Yuan is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry. Chujun received a M. Med. degree from Peking Union Medical College in China. During his M. Med. research, he studied the therapeutic and preventive effects of a Chinese herb on chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) which is now on the market. Upon joining our laboratory in the summer of 2002, Chujun had been exploring the functional significance of G-Protein gamma subunit isoforms and the molecular mechanism for action of AGS proteins. Chujun received his Ph.D. in 2007 and is now working at New York University as a postdoctoral fellow.

Huan Wang
B.S., Wuhan University
M.S., University of Rochester, 2001
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 2005

Huan Wang was a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry. Huan received an M.S. from Wuhan University in China. During his M.S. research, he characterized a plant vacuolar proton pump (V-ATPase) by purifying the holoenzyme and reconstituting it into phospholipid vesicles. Huan developed the PLCe knockout mouse model in our laboratory. He graduated in 2005 and is currently doing a postdoc in mass spec proteomics at Wistar Institute.