Across the Great Divide

Speakers

William A. Banks, MD

Veterans Affairs Medical Center/St. Louis University
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William A. Banks is a staff physician and principal investigator at the V.A., St. Louis, and a professor of geriatrics in the department of internal medicine and a professor in the department of pharmacological and physiological sciences. He has authored over 300 non-abstract publications and is on 10 editorial boards, including being editor-in-chief of Current Pharmaceutical Design. He has received numerous awards, and was most recently recognized as the Milton D. Overholser Memorial Lecturer in 2004.

Banks graduated in 1979 with an MD from University of Missouri, Columbia, School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine and endocrinology and metabolism at Tulane University and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, New Orleans. He is board certified in both internal medicine and endocrinology/metabolism. From 1982 to 1985, he was a research associate in the V.A.'s career development program. He remained at the V.A. and Tulane in New Orleans, becoming full professor in the department of medicine before moving to the V.A. and Saint Louis University in 1998.

Gary M. Pollack, PhD

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Gary M. Pollack is executive associate dean and professor, School of Pharmacy, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He received his BA in chemistry and psychology from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and his PhD in pharmaceutics, with a concentration in pharmacokinetics, from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has been a member of the faculty of the UNC School of Pharmacy since 1984, and served as chair of the school's division of drug delivery and disposition (formerly the division of pharmaceutics) from 1992 through 2004.

Pollack's research is centered on the disposition and action of drugs and toxicants in the central nervous system. His group has made major contributions towards understanding the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of morphine tolerance, including the key role of nitric oxide in the loss of response to morphine. Most recently, his group has focused on the influence of barrier transporters on blood-brain barrier permeation and intra-organ distribution of substrates, as well as on the pharmacologic activity of opioids. Pollack has mentored more than 40 graduate, undergraduate, and postdoctoral students in his laboratory and has authored over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and scientific abstracts. He is a fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is associate editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

William H. Frey II, PhD

Alzheimer’s Research Center, St. Paul
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
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William H. Frey II is director of the Alzheimer's Research Center at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, MN, professor of pharmaceutics at the University of Minnesota and consultant to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. His patents, owned by Chiron Corporation and the HealthPartners Research Foundation, target non-invasive delivery of therapeutic and diagnostic agents to the brain and spinal cord for treating neurologic and psychiatric disorders and the use of antioxidants to treat and prevent disease.

Frey earned his PhD in biochemistry at Case Western Reserve University.

Gary A. Rosenberg, MD

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
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Gary A. Rosenberg is chairman of neurology and professor of neurology, neurosciences and cell biology and physiology at the University of New Mexico Medical School. He graduated from the Albert Einstein Medical School and did his training in neurology at that institution. His research has focused on the blood-brain barrier and edema. He discovered that the matrix metalloproteinases attack the blood vessels during neuroinflammation. This work has relevance in stroke, multiple sclerosis, and vascular dementia. He is currently studying inhibitors of metalloproteinases, with the goal of identifying therapeutic agents.

Catherine Zandonella

Catherine Zandonella is a science writer based in Princeton, New Jersey, covering such topics as environmental science, public health, and applied technology. She has a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. Zandonella has written for a number of publications, including New Scientist, The Scientist, and Nature.