Our Team

Principal Investigator

Email: slarnold@uw.edu

UW Profile

Dr. Samuel Arnold joined the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Washington as an Assistant Professor in 2023, and he is the director of the Pharmacokinetics and Modeling Lab which supports the development and application of LC-MS assays for small molecules and proteins. In addition, Dr. Arnold’s lab works on the development of in vitro and in vivo models for major etiological agents of diarrheal disease (e.g., Cryptosporidium and Shigella). While there has been a substantial reduction in diarrhea associated mortality over the past decade, diarrheal diseases continue to be a major global health concern (second leading cause of death in children < 5 years old). Models of in vitro and in vivo infection developed by the Arnold lab support their studies to identify pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) relationships for therapeutic treatment of enteric infections.

Principal Investigator

Email: edkelly@uw.edu

UW Profile

Dr. Ed Kelly will lead the efforts for Aim 3 of the UW-TEC. His lab focuses on development of microphysiological systems as novel alternative methods to animal-based research. The focus of Aim 3 will be to characterize transporter expression in pediatric intestine utilizing a combination of primary tissues and stem cell-derived intestinal organoids.

Dr. Kelly holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and serves as Co-Director of the Pharmaceutical Bioengineering Extension Program.

Principal Investigator

Email: jash@uw.edu

UW Profile

Jashvant (Jash) Unadkat, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Dept. of Pharmaceutics at the School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy (B.Pharm.) from the University of London (1977), his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester and his postdoctoral training at the University of California at San Francisco.

He held the Milo Gibaldi Endowed Professorship in the Department from 2016-21. Dr. Unadkat’s research interests are on mechanisms of transport and metabolism of drugs during pregnancy, and transport of drugs across the placental, hepatic, intestinal and blood-brain barrier. Dr. Unadkat has published more than 250 peer-reviewed research papers.  He is a fellow of AAAS, AAPS, JSSX, and the founding co-chair (1999-2001) of the focus group of AAPS on Drug Transport and Uptake. Dr. Unadkat received the AAPS Research Achievement Award in 2012 and the ISSX Scientific Achievement Award in 2023.

Dr. Unadkat created and led the UW Research Affiliates Program on Transporters (UWRAPT), a cooperative effort between the UW School of Pharmacy and pharmaceutical companies, for 10 years. He also leads UWPKDAP, a NIDA funded Program Project grant (P01) on drug disposition during pregnancy. Dr. Unadkat has been an Associate Editor for the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, an Editor of AAPS Journal, and a member of the NIH Pharmacology study section (2000-3).  Dr. Unadkat has organized or co-organized numerous national and international conferences on the role of transporters and pregnancy in the disposition of drugs.

Principal Investigator

Email: jowang@uw.edu

UW Profile

Dr. Joanne Wang is a Professor in the Dept. of Pharmaceutics at the School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.  She received her BS degree in Biochemistry from Peking University and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco.  Dr. Wang’s primary research interests have been focused on understanding solute carrier (SLC) proteins that transport nutrients, neurotransmitters, hormones, drugs, and toxins across cell membranes.  Her laboratory first cloned, characterized, and generated the knockout mouse model for the plasma membrane monoamine transporter (PMAT, SLC29A4).  Using molecular, biochemical, cellular approaches and mechanistic studies in transgenic mouse models, her laboratory has 1) established PMAT as a major uptake-2 monoamine transporter in the human brain as well as a polyspecific organic cation transporter in normal and cancerous human tissues and cells; 2) demonstrated the role of organic cation transporter 3 (OCT3, SLC22A3) in drug accumulation in salivary glands and in placental transport of organic cation drugs and toxins; 3) elucidated the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in OCT2 (SLC22A2) and MATE1/2-K (SLC47A1/2K)-mediated renal drug elimination and drug-drug interactions; 4) elucidated the molecular and cellular mechanisms of OATP (SLCO)-mediated transport at the blood-CSF barrier; 5) uncovered a novel molecular mechanism underlying obesity and metabolic dysfunctions due to serotonin transporter (SERT, SLC6A4) deletion.  Dr. Wang serves as an associate editor for Pharmacological Reviews and is on the editorial advisory boards of Molecular Pharmacology, Drug Metabolism and Disposition, and Biopharmaceutics and Drug Disposition.