Instructors

Mariana I. Babayeva, MD, PhD.  Assistant Professor, Touro College of Pharmacy, NY. Dr. Babayeva is also a visiting scientist at Arnold and Marie Schwartz School of Pharmacy of Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, where she coordinates graduate student research. Dr. Babayeva has over 10 years of experience in clinical practice. She also has extensive experience in the pharmacokinetics of renal excretion and in the use of animal and organ models to explore mechanisms and kinetics of renal clearance. She will provide laboratory demonstrations on the isolated perfused rat kidney model.

Dwight A. Bellinger, DVM, PhD.  Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Bellinger is also a clinical veterinarian in the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine at UNC. He has 25 years of experience in laboratory animal medicine and, during that time, has trained students from a variety of backgrounds and with a range of experience levels. He will contribute several modules in this course, including animal experimentation, principles of animal anesthesia and surgery, and the dog and pig models maintained by the University.

Kim L. R. Brouwer, PharmD, PhD.  Professor and Chair of the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Brouwer's expertise is in the area of pharmacokinetics, with particular emphasis on animal models of hepatobiliary drug disposition (active uptake, biliary excretion, and hepatic metabolism). She has maintained a strong translational research program at UNC and her research group routinely integrates mechanistic information obtained in cellular models into descriptions of the intact organ, whole animals, and humans.

Virginia L. Godfrey, DVM, PhD.  Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Godfrey has considerable expertise in the management of large-scale rodent colonies, having directed the rodent program at the Biology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory for eight years. This large genetics research program had a daily census of more than 200,000 animals and more than 1,000 mouse strains. She is board certified in veterinary anatomic pathology and has over seventeen years experience with the breeding, maintenance, and phenotypic assessment of laboratory rodents. She currently oversees the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine's Health Surveillance Program, including supervision of in-house microbiology and necropsy services.

Rhonda Lewallen.  IACUC Training/Compliance Coordinator, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Lewallen has created the current IACUC training program at UNC and will provide instruction in animal handling and principles of small animal surgery.

Kathleen Mohr.  Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Center Facility Manager, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Mohr is the facility manager of the Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Center at UNC, one of four centers in the nation funded by NCRR/NIH. She oversees and trains all personnel in cryopreservation, embryo transplant surgery, in vitro fertilization, mouse sperm phenotyping, and breeding colony management. She has served as organizer and lead instructor for six years for the Carolina Workship on Genetic Engineering of Mice, teaching pronuclear and blastocyst microinjection, surgical procedures, colony management, embryo isolations, and injection needle fabrication.

Mary F. Paine, RPh, PhD.  Assistant Professor, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Paine has expertise in pharmacokinetics, with particular emphasis in biochemical factors (metabolism, active uptake, active efflux) that influence drug disposition in the intestine. Her translational research program utilizes various cellular and organ models to better understand mechanisms underlying drug-xenobiotic interactions observed in the clinic.

Adam M. Persky, PhD.  Clinical Assistant Professor, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Persky's primary responsibility in the School is the development and delivery of advanced external coursework. He has expertise in pharmacokinetics and is well versed in the theory and application of microdialysis.

Gary M. Pollack, PhD.  Professor and Executive Associate Dean, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Pollack's expertise is in the area of theoretical and applied pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, with particular emphasis on animal models of CNS drug disposition and action. His laboratory has a long-standing history using many of the intact animal, perfused organ, and mathematical modeling techniques included in the short course.

Janice D. Wagner, DVM, PhD.  Associate Dean for Research, Professor of Pathology, and Director of the Animal Resource Center, Wake Forest University. Dr. Wagner has a long and distinguished track record in the utilization of primate models of human disease and will teach the primate module of the course.