News and Announcements
Read the latest news from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology and learn more about our faculty’s latest achievements, awards and honors.
06.17.2022A subunit of voltage-gated calcium channels was found to have a functional role in T-cells, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
04.27.2022Improving health equity and the impacts of pharmacogenetics were explored at the "Science and the City" symposium on April 6. The event was the second in a series jointly supported and developed by the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute and co-developed by the Chicago State University College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Pharmacology.
03.31.2022Higher doses of anti-seizure medications may be necessary during pregnancy, according to a recent study.
03.30.2022A recent study published in Nature Genetics identified 10 new genetic regions associated with Brugada syndrome, a cardiac arrhythmia disorder.
03.28.2022Northwestern Medicine continues to help advance the understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and its widespread impact, from investigating antibody protection against COVID-19 reinfection to elevating women in academic research to highlighting racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 hospital mortality in Illinois.
03.04.2022Northwestern Medicine scientists discovered functional links between dozens of potassium channel gene variants and neonatal epilepsy.
03.03.2022A team of Northwestern scientists led by Zhe Ji, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology and Biomedical Engineering, introduced a novel genomic experimental approach in ribosome profiling to study RNA translation. Traditional ribosome profiling technology uses RNase to digest RNA fragments and complicated procedures to isolate ribosome complexes, while the newly developed and simplified protocol uses low-input RNase footprinting to selectively quantify ribosome fragments more rapidly and effectively, according to the study published in the journal Genome Research. This scientific advance offers broad applications in both basic and clinical settings, particularly in situations where physiological samples are limited.
02.09.2022Sequencing known cardiac arrythmia genes in more than 20,000 people without an indication for genetic testing identified pathogenic variants in nearly one percent of individuals.
01.26.2022Northwestern University professors Paula H. Stern and Catherine Woolley have been selected 2021 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
01.21.2022A new study has identified naturally occurring nano-sized particles that can block infection from broad strains of SARS-CoV-2 virus in preclinical studies.
01.03.2022A team of investigators have discovered a novel genomic variant that may help clinicians predict which patients will experience cardiotoxicity from a widely used chemotherapy drug, according to a Northwestern Medicine study.
12.31.2021What do we know about the effectiveness of COVID-19 boosters, and how might they better protect us from new variants such as omicron? Alexis Demonbreun, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology, offers insight. She is the author of a new study that shows COVID-19 boosters seem to supercharge antibody response.
10.28.2021Northwestern University scientists have received two awards totaling nearly $18 million for Parkinson’s disease research from The ASAP Collaborative Research Network, a program of the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative being implemented through The Michael J. Fox Foundation.
The ASAP network supports multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams to address key knowledge gaps in the basic circuit mechanisms that contribute to the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease.
09.23.2021Northwestern Medicine scientists have characterized several variants of the gene GRIK2 that cause nonsyndromic neurodevelopmental disorder.
09.22.2021Circulating tumor cells use the surface protein ICAM1 to strengthen stem cell programs and facilitate formation of tumor cell clusters, which can travel from primary tumors to other organs in the body.
08.23.2021Gabriel Rocklin, PhD, is an assistant professor of Pharmacology and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. He is also a faculty member at Northwestern’s Center for Synthetic Biology, where his lab develops high-throughput methods for protein biophysics and protein design, with a focus on protein therapeutics.
- 08.05.2021
In collaboration with Northwestern Medicine investigators, an international multi-center study has identified genetic factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity.
03.18.2021Feinberg’s Department of Pharmacology has expanded in size, faculty, and research focus, and is looking ahead to future growth in the field.
- 03.03.2021
Scientists discovered a previously unknown receptor site in a voltage-gated sodium channel, suggesting that a commonly-used cancer drug could be used to target this channel and relieve pain.
02.22.2021For the first time, Northwestern Medicine scientists have characterized how a genetic mutation associated with pediatric epilepsy affects neuron activity.
01.07.2021A team led by Northwestern Medicine investigators has identified a novel molecular target that may improve the efficacy of current treatments for triple-negative breast cancer.
01.04.2021Calcium channels commonly found in immune cells are also present in the brain and regulate synaptic plasticity, according to a recently published study.
12.08.2020Northwestern Medicine investigators have identified a novel “gate latch” mechanism within the Orai1 ion channel that is essential for proper activation of the immune system.
11.23.2020Northwestern scientists have determined how two protein mutations responsible for the impaired motor function in Parkinson’s disease independently disrupt neuron activity.
11.16.2020A cell-surface protein is essential for proper microcircuit function in the brain, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
10.14.2020A group of scientists combined medicinal chemistry and human stem cells to improve a medication treating a cardiac rhythm disorder, a strategy that could be applied broadly.
10.06.2020Gabriel Rocklin, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology, has received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, an early-career grant supporting unconventional research projects in the biomedical, behavioral or social sciences.
06.25.2020In the past decade, synthetic biology — the reengineering of organisms and their genetic information so they can produce a new substance or gain a new ability — has rapidly emerged to the forefront of modern-day science. Northwestern’s Center for Synthetic Biology has been leading the way.
06.12.2020A Northwestern Medicine study has uncovered the molecular mechanisms behind the development of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) and a potential drug target.