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Picture of John Gerdes

John Gerdes
Associate Professor

Phone: (406) 243-4084

Email: john.gerdes@umontana.edu

After completing a B.S. in Chemistry at Colorado State University (1978), John Gerdes received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California at Riverside in 1982. Following a postdoctoral position at U. C. Berkeley, he joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) as a staff scientist during 1986. In 1991 he began his industrial experience, working for Zeneca, Ltd., which was followed by a faculty post within the Department of Chemistry at Central Washington University (1995) where he was promoted to full professor in 2001. Subsequently, he joined the CFSN and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Montana (2001). He serves as the Director of the CSFN Molecular Computational Core Facility (2001-present). During 2006 he became a tenured faculty member within the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

RESEARCH STATEMENT

Our research encompasses a full spectrum of medicinal chemistry studies of central nervous system (CNS) pre-synaptic transporter proteins, including the serotonin transporter (SERT), norepinephrine transporter (NET) and select excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs). A portion of our studies focuses upon computational modeling, involving superposition-consensus pharmacophore model generation, formation of comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) models, and protein homology models. Together, the various models serve as key criteria for the designs of new ligands and drugs for the transporter target proteins.

Model designed ligand libraries are routinely synthesized in our lab and then pharmacologically evaluated for target protein binding potency. By doing so, be are able to evaluate the predictive qualities of the models, and enhance the ligand pharmacological activities through iterative design. The small molecule agents novel therapeutic drugs, diagnostic probes and biochemical reagents.

Many of the new agents are assessed in vivo carried out with collaborators. For example, select candidate drugs are fashioned as dynamic brain imaging tracers for positron emission tomography (PET). Cerebral PET imaging provides the opportunity to utilize the radiolabeled forms of our ligands (tracers) to gain estimates of the density of the target CNS transporter proteins in living brain. Primate CNS PET measures afford deeper insights into aspects of tracer neuropharmacological kinetics and dynamics, modes of actions of CNS therapeutic interventions and biological psychiatry circuitry associated with various neurological and mental health disorders.

 

KEY PUBLICATIONS