John Imig, Ph.D., formerly the Director of the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Drug Discovery Center, has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences as chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the UAMS College of Pharmacy. He succeeds Peter Crooks, Ph.D., who was chair of the department since 2011 and is internationally recognized for his work in anti-cancer drug research.
“I’m excited to welcome Dr. Imig to UAMS and the College of Pharmacy,” said Dean Cindy Stowe, Pharm.D. “John is a seasoned leader with a strong pharmaceutical sciences research program and a committed desire to advance the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences by developing talent, building fruitful collaborations and providing strategic leadership.”
Imig is a vascular and renal biologist with varied research interests, ranging from hypertension, diabetes, and metabolic disease, to cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and fatty liver disease, and he and his team have developed novel drugs to help treat these conditions. Over his career, Imig has received more than $35 million in grant support as a principal investigator or co-investigator, including a number of ongoing grants which he has brought with him to UAMS.
“I wanted to find an opportunity that combined education, research, community engagement and developing therapeutics,” Imig said. “The UAMS College of Pharmacy is a great place for that to occur. It has a strong pharmaceutical sciences department with great faculty and is very highly rated. There is real opportunity for continued growth in education and research.”
Imig is a Fellow of the American Physiological Society, the American Heart Association and the American Society of Nephrology, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He serves as chief editor of Frontiers in Physiology, an associate editor for Cardiovascular Therapeutics and Frontiers in Vascular Physiology, and serves on seven other editorial boards. He has published over 180 original articles, and has authored or co-authored nine book chapters.
Imig earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois, and his Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.
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