Education

1984 - 1988 Ph.D. (Pharmacology)
1975 - 1979 B.Pharm. (Pharmacy)
 

Research Interest

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer affecting men in the USA, and treatment options are limited. Androgens regulate the rate of growth and differentiation in normal and cancerous prostate tissue. For this reason, androgen receptor antagonists and drugs that decrease the circulating androgens are used in the early stages of prostate cancer. However there is a high degree of relapse in spite of the low androgen environment produced by these drugs. This has been attributed to the presence of prostate cancer cells which are resistant to androgen therapy, especially in the advanced stages of the disease.

Our research focus is on the discovery of chemical entities from natural and synthetic sources with efficacy against these prostate cancer cells. Our synthesis and structure-activity studies have yielded potent naphthoquinone analogs with significant efficacy against prostate cancer cell lines. In our natural products program, we have isolated chemical entities (mainly indoloquinoline compounds) from plant sources which also exhibit significant activity against prostate cancer cell lines. Studies are ongoing in our laboratory to determine the biochemical mechanisms underlying the potent activities of these compounds and their synthetic analogs against prostate cancer cell lines.

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