Assistant Professor - Computational Pharmaceutics or Medicinal Chemistry

About the role

Department: Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences. The Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences (PPS) at the University of Houston seeks highly qualified applicants in the Presidential Frontier Faculty program (https://www.uh.edu/provost/faculty/prospective-faculty/presidential-frontier-faculty/) at the Assistant Professor level for a full-time, tenure-track faculty position in Computational Pharmaceutics or Medicinal Chemistry. The Presidential Frontier Faculty initiative is a university-wide interdisciplinary hiring campaign aimed at enhancing the UH research enterprise by integrating the strengths of existing faculty and infrastructure with strong early career new faculty hires. Outstanding applicants with cross-disciplinary research programs are strongly encouraged to apply. Computational Pharmaceutical Sciences is broadly defined. Applicants with specialization at the intersection of mathematical modeling, data science, and translational research including those developing new approach methodologies (NAMs) by combining multiscale mechanistic modeling, quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP), and artificial intelligence (AI) are encouraged to apply. Also, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning applied to drug discovery, molecular design, chemical biology, hit-to-lead optimization, virtual screening, structure-based and ligand-based drug design, chemical synthesis and translational pharmaceutical sciences are considered. Furthermore, structural bioinformatic scientists leveraging cutting-edge computational techniques to investigate complex protein-ligand interactions, driving forward high-impact biomedical and translational research projects are encouraged to apply. PPS is in Health Building 2, a 300,000-square-foot state-of-the-art research facility on the University of Houston Campus. Research programs are supported with exceptional laboratory space and updated cutting-edge core research facilities including a 600 MHz Jeol NMR and high-end mass spectrophotometers. Examples of other newly available shared equipment and facilities include a Visual Sonics Vevo 3100 Preclinical Imaging System, Perkin Elmer IVIS Lumina III XRMS Whole Animal Imaging System, 2 Orbitrap Exploris 480 High-Resolution Mass Spectrometers (one with Biopharma option and another with MALDI imaging and nanoLC capability), 2 AB Sciex 7500+ LC-MS/MS systems, confocal microscopes, Digital & QuantStudio RT-PCR systems, Agilent Seahorse XF metabolic analyzer, and PhenoMasterNG Metabolism, Behavior, Physiology Cages, Sartorius Octet R8, Biotech Cytation 5, Shimadzu HPLC, and Opentron flex station. The research strengths of the Department’s faculty are in pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacology providing ample collaboration. This includes pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, PK/PD modeling, drug delivery, formulations, lead optimization, chemical biology, and molecular/cellular/in vivo pharmacology. Therapeutic areas of drug discovery and development interest include cancer, immunology, neuroscience, renal, skeletal muscle, cardiovascular