Steven M. Peseckis, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
College of Pharmacy
B.A. 1974-1978 Dartmouth College
Ph.D. 1978-1983 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Principal Scientist 1983-1990 Wyeth, Inc, Princeton, NJ
NIH Fellowship 1990-1991 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Research Fellowship 1991-1994 Sloan Kettering Institute, NY, NY
Assistant Professor 1994-2000 University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
Associate Professor 2000-Present University of Toledo, Toledo, OH

Peseckis Group Research Interests

Overview
      Peseckis research group interests in general revolve around heterotrimeric G-protein mediated signal transduction. As tools, we use informatic and experimental methodologies including molecular biology, cell biology, synthetic chemistry, and molecular modeling.

     The group in 2004-2005 includes three Ph.D. candidate graduate students each with a distinctive project focus.

Gregory White, R.Ph., is investigating his theory concerning neurotension receptors, immune factors, and psychiatric disease states. Additionally, he is planning to use his experimental results to support drug development using molecular modeling and docking.

Rick Dudley, R.Ph. has made a series of lipophilical amino acids with an incorporated fluorescent tag and is studying the compounds behavior in regards to entering into and localizing within cells. Additionally, he is making modified peptides that will enter into cells, be processed, and then presented by MHC Class I molecules to the immune system in order to study aspects of diabetes. Overall, his research will lead to new understandings and methods for delivey of small drugs and peptides into cells.

Marc Christensen, R.Ph. has constructed models of a M1 muscarinic receptor and a phospholipid bilayer using MODELLER and Amber 8. He has combined the models of the G protein-coupled receptor and bilayer and is working to acheive meaningful molecular dynamic calculations using the combination. The resultant model will be used in ligand docking studies, attempts to predict active conformation of receptor, and models of receptor bound with heterotrimeric G-protein.

Heterotrimeric G-protein Database

      Rahim Lila, Ph.D., graduated in 2002 and helped to create a user friendly relational database of existing experimental information related to heterotrimeric G-proteins. In the future we plan to develop relational databases that aid in integrating basic research with theory and clinical observations. The database we initially made contained information on intermolecular interactions, regulated outcomes, similarity and difference analysis of components, and physical characterizations. We included in the site a sequence alignment program to aid in data analysis and static web pages that provided background information, site links and tutorial, and selected references. For the moment this database is off-line (maintenance and security issues), but we hope to improve it and get it up-and-running again in the future.

Medicinal and Poisonous Plant Database (MPPDB)
      The design, creation, and deployment of a Toledo regional Medicinal and Poisonous Plants database is a learning/service project. The database hosts textual and graphical information on plants found in the wilds of the Toledo area. The objectives of the project are to provide basic information to students and the community, increase awareness of regional naturalist resources, and enhance education of students interested in pharmacognosy and informatics.