Pharmacology and Toxicology - Research

Wayne R. Snodgrass, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor


Research Interests

  • Use of cytochrome P-450 isoenzyme patterns to predict individual toxicity risk for drugs and chemicals that undergo metabolic activation.
  • Sedation and analgesia.
  • Use of anti-oxidant/NMDA antagonist therapies to decrease anoxic brain injury.
  • Use of urinary thioether excretion as an index of exposure to environmental chemicals.
  • Use of gastrointestinal dialysis to enhance removal of environmental/occupational chemicals from deep compartment body storage sites.
  • Application of stochastic control theory Bayesian population pharmacokinetics to improve individual patient therapeutics.

    My interest in drug metabolism by cytochrome P-450 isozymes is driven by the fundamental importance of this process in the handling and excretion of drugs by the body and thus, the kinetics of the onset and offset of drug action for patients. Also, this same process of drug metabolism is known to result in chemically reactive intermediates that may produce toxicity. Thus, in the future, prediction of drug toxicity before administration of a drug to a patient may be possible. And potentially, it may be possible to predict individual susceptibility to some environmental chemicals.

    • Selected Publications

    Snodgrass WR: Valproic acid medical toxicology. IN: Brent J et al: Critical Care Toxicology. Diagnosis and Management of the Critically Poisoned Patient. Elsevier Mosby, Philadelphia PA, 2005:565—570

    Klein, G. and Snodgrass, W.R. (2000) Food toxins and poisons from microorganisms. The Cambridge World History of Food, vol II, Kiple K.F. and Ornelas, K.C. (eds) Cambridge University Press, NY, 1694-1703.

    Snodgrass, W.R. (1996) Clinical Toxicology. Casarett and Doull's Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons, 5th ed, Klaassen CD, ed, McGraw-Hill, NY. 969-986.

    Snodgrass WR: Use of herbal products in children: risks and unproven benefits. IN: Neonatal and Pediatric Pharmacology. Therapeutic Principles in Practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia PA, 2005:841—847

    Albers, J.W., Cole P., Greenberg, R.S., Mendel J.S., Monson, R.R., Ross, J.H., Snodgrass, W.R., Spurgeon, A., and van Gemert, M. (1999) Analysis of chlorpyrifos exposure and human health: expert panel report. J. Toxicol Environ Health. 2:301-324.