Research Faculty

Dr. Beazely’s research seeks to understand how growth factor receptors and G protein-coupled receptors modulate ion channels in excitatory neurotransmission, neuroprotective mechanisms and neuronal development. Intracellular signalling pathways downstream of GPCRs such as the 5-HT7 receptor and growth factor receptors such as the PDGF receptor.

Dr. Chang serves as the Chair of Rural Pharmacy with Gateway Rural Health Research Institute (www.gatewayresearch.ca). Her research interests focus on delivering integrated interprofessional patient care solutions to ensure safe, effective, and efficient medication use, particularly in the rural elderly; amplifying local health care professional capacity; and expanding access to care that leads to defined outcomes and demonstrable impact.

Dr Edginton’s research focuses on building virtual organisms to study the pharmacokinetics of drugs and environmental contaminants. Using pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models to provide a mechanistic means of understanding how changes in physiology can affect the absorption, metabolism and excretion of a chemical; and using PBPK models to scale pharmacokinetics among species (e.g., from rat to human) and within a species (e.g., from healthy adults to children or patients) with an eye toward determining the right dose of medicine or determining differential risks associated with contaminant exposure in human health risk. 

Dr Foldvari’s research focuses on the development of intelligent delivery systems and biomolecular devices. To develop new, non-invasive technologies to deliver therapeutic agents into the body to specifically target diseased tissues, and to investigate the fundamental properties of these delivery technologies and the cells and tissues they target.

Dr. Grindrod's research interests include the role web technologies play in the delivery of primary care services. She is currently examining the use of social media in community-based pharmacy practice. She is also interested in how community-based health professionals’ perceive electronic interventions for modifying prescribing (e.g., internet-based academic detailing).

Dr. Joseph’s research is focussed on (1) ascertaining how the β-cell senses glucose and (2) searching for ways to reduce the number of islets required for islet transplantation. These two themes are connected in that the first theme provides novel targets to enhance islet function in the second theme. His long-term goals are to discover novel drug targets for enhancing islet function to treat type 2 diabetes and to develop a renewable source of β-cells (e.g., cell therapy) to treat both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Maxwell’s primary research interests are in the areas of Pharmacoepidemiology and Aging with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, depression and health services and outcomes research. She is also involved in national and international research examining the health and quality of care needs of older residents within Assisted Living and Long Term Care settings. She holds a cross-appointment in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo and is an Adjunct Scientist with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Community Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Calgary. 

Dr. Nekkar specializes in medicinal and bioorganic chemistry. Explore rational drug design aided by molecular modelling techniques; small molecule synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry, including method development; solid phase peptide synthesis of bioactive peptides / peptidomimics; modern analytical techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy and high performance liquid chromatography; and development of high-throughput biochemical screening protocols to discover lead candidates.

Dr. Rojas-Fernandez’s clinical research program addresses issues of over-use and under-use of medications, and optimising (i.e., ensuring the safe and appropriate use of medications) medication use across different care settings.

Dr. Slavcev’s research focuses on bacteriophage-based biotechnology, including the use of coliphages to design and construct vectors for the development of novel vaccines, pharmaceuticals and gene delivery systems, and the identification and application of novel phage genomic anti-bacterial genes with potential phage therapy applications.

Dr. Waite’s research examines the impact of curricular mapping on student achievement of outcomes, methods of student outcome assessment and comparison of different instructional methods. While this research involves many components of the curriculum, the areas of interprofessional education, patient safety, co-operative experiential education, business, and community service learning are her current areas of focus.   

Dr. Wettig’s research focuses on the design, synthesis and characterization of novel surfactants with an eye toward their application in drug delivery. Current research projects are focused on the study of novel cationic lipid DNA complexes with potential application to genetic therapies, the characterization of novel amino acid derivatives for transdermal drug delivery, and the development of fluorescent surfactants for mechanistic studies.