News
Dear Colleagues,
I am most pleased to announce the appointment of Margarita L. Dubocovich, Ph.D., as the new Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.
Following a comprehensive national search, Dr. Dubocovich rapidly emerged as our top candidate possessing the administrative, scientific, leadership, and visionary skills needed to move the Department forward and further align the Department with UB2020's strategic goals. She will join our School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences this Fall. I have attached her CV.
Dr. Dubocovich is currently Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She also serves as the Program Director of Northwestern's Collaborative Learning and Integrated Mentoring in the Bioscience Program (CLIMB Program), a program that will be established at Buffalo to facilitate recruitment of graduate students from under represented to mentored research training.
Dr. Dubocovich is an internationally recognized expert and leader in molecular pharmacology and drug design. Her work is focused on understanding the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms of G-protein receptor action. Her studies use, as a model, G-protein coupled receptors for the hormone melatonin. Melatonin has been shown to regulate biological clocks and to affect reproductive, circadian, and retina functions, as well as neuroendocrine processes. She and her colleagues, who include her husband, Dr. Randall Hudson (who will join the faculty in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics), are engaged in assessing the cellular, molecular and functional relationships of the melatonin receptors (MT1,
MT2) and in relating these findings to the in vivo effects of the hormone.
Ongoing studies to fulfill these goals focus on the localization and molecular and pharmacological characterization of melatonin receptors, modulation of signal transduction pathways, role of light-melatonin interactions on visual function and circadian rhythms and function of melatonin receptors in cardiovascular regulation and cell proliferation.
Her studies on molecular based drug design are aimed to discover novel and selective melatonin receptor agonists and antagonists with therapeutic potential to treat insomnia and circadian rhythms disturbances of mood and sleep due to endogenous (blindness, aging, delay sleep phase syndrome) and exogenous (jet lag, phase shift) causes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and aging.
I recognize and thank the Search Committee that was chaired by Dr. Ken Blumenthal and included Drs. John Canty, George DeTitta, James Olson, Noreen Williams, Candace Johnson, Arin Bhattacharjee, and Ed Bednarczyk. I also wish to recognize and thank Dr. Ronald Rubin, who has chaired the Department since 1989, for his leadership and devotion to our School.
Michael E. Cain, MD
Dean, School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
University at Buffalo
Biomedical Education Building, Room 155
3435 Main Street, Bldg. 22
Buffalo, NY 14214-3013
Phone: 716-829-3955
FAX: 716-829-2179