Camacho-Hernandez Lab at UTMB Health | Neurochemistry Synthesis Unit

Camacho-Hernandez Lab

Integrating medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, and in vitro pharmacology

Welcome to the Camacho-Hernandez Lab Neurochemistry Synthesis Unit

The Camacho-Hernandez Lab is a multidisciplinary research team at the interface of medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, dedicated to developing and optimizing small molecules to probe transmembrane protein function, combining synthetic organic chemistry with in vitro pharmacological assays and advanced imaging techniques.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." — Albert Einstein

Mission

Our Lab is dedicated to advancing our understanding of membrane protein function and regulation in the context of neuropsychiatric disorders. Through the integration of medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, and in vitro pharmacology, we design and synthesize small molecules to probe ligand-gated ion channels and transporters. Our mission is to develop molecular tools and therapeutic leads that illuminate the roles of these proteins in health and disease, leveraging cutting-edge techniques in synthetic chemistry, radio ligand binding, and imaging to drive discovery and translational impact.

Research Interests and Scientific Approach

Principal Investigator: Gisela A. Camacho Hernandez, PhD

Gisela was born and raised in Tijuana B. C. Mexico. She received her B.S. in Biopharmaceutical Chemistry (2011), and her M.S. (2013) from the Autonomous University of Baja California (Mexico). In a joint program between the Autonomous University of Baja California (Mexico) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) she received her Ph.D. (2018) under the mentorship of Professor Palmer W. Taylor (Department of Pharmacology and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, UCSD) and Dr. Jose Manuel Cornejo-Bravo (UABC). Her Ph.D. dissertation focused on the development of non-canonical α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists. In 2019 she joined the lab of Dr. Amy H. Newman at the National Institute on Drug Abuse as a postdoctoral fellow where she developed novel pharmacological tools targeting the monoamine transporters.

Since 2024, Gisela joined the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at UTMB as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor. Her research interests include development of pharmacological tools to study transmembrane proteins ideally in their natural environment and the development of potential therapeutics with an emphasis on targets associated with neuropsychiatric and neurological diseases and disorders.

Outside the lab, Gisela enjoys traveling, cooking, hiking and spending time with her life partner, daughter, two dogs, and extended family and friends.

Dept Web Bio UTMB Research Experts

Selected Honors and Awards

2024 Second place oral presentation, Neuropharmacology division, Early Career Investigator Award Lecture and Postdoctoral Showcase. American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Arlington, VA, USA.
2024 Daniel T. O'Connor Young Investigator Travel Award from the Catecholamine Society. May 16-19, 2024.
2023 NIDA Postdoctoral Fellow Mentoring Award. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, May 2023. Baltimore, MD USA.
2023 NIDA Women in Science, Excellence in Research Award. National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse. May 2023. Baltimore, MD USA.
2023 Travel Award, 15th Annual Behavior, Biology and Chemistry: Translational Research in Substance Use Disorders (BBC) meeting. San Antonio, TX USA.
2022 Selected Highlighted Trainee Author for the month of November, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 2022 Baltimore Brain Series Selected Speaker. The Johns Hopkins University. November 29th, Baltimore, MD USA.
2022 Travel Award, 7th Chemistry & Pharmacology of Drug Abuse (CPDA) meeting. Boston, MA USA.
2022 Travel Award, 2nd International Transmembrane Transporter Society Meeting (ITTS 2022). Copenhagen, Denmark.
2022 NIDA Women in Science, Promising Postdoctoral Award. National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse. Baltimore, MD USA.
2022 Travel Award, 14th Annual Behavior, Biology and Chemistry: Translational Research in Addiction (BBC) meeting. San Antonio, TX USA.
2019 First place, poster competition in Drug Discovery and Development. American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Experimental Biology. Orlando, FL USA.
2017 Akira E. Takemori Graduate Student Travel Award. Experimental Biology, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Chicago, IL USA.
2016 B.P. Doctor Young Investigator Award. XVth International Symposium on Cholinergic Mechanisms. Marseille, France.
2016 Best Neuropharmacology Poster. Pharmacology and training grant program retreat UCSD, San Diego, CA USA.

Dept Web Bio UTMB Research Experts

News

September 2025:: Tim and Ritu present a poster of their projects at the 7th annual GCC Mental Health Research Conference; Sam officially joins the lab as the first graduate student!
August 2025:: Tim selected to present in the 2 min Data Blitz session at the 7th annual GCC Mental Health Research Conference that will be held in Houston on September 18th. Congratulations Tim!!
May 2025:: Welcome to our first rotation student, Sam Meccia!
February 2025:: Welcome to Tim Chavez, our first postdoc joining the team! Tim received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.
January 2025:: Welcome to Ritu Prajapati, our first research staff! Ritu is joining the team as a Research Associate II; she received a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota.
August 2024:: The lab officially opens its doors!

Contact Us

The Camacho-Hernandez Lab is located in the Basic Science Building and Research Building 17 at the Center for Addiction Sciences and Therapeutics.

Center for Addiction Sciences and Therapeutics
Phone: (409) 772-9640
Email: gicamach@utmb.edu
Mailing address:
301 University Boulevard
Galveston, TX 77555-0617

Thanks for your interest in our research.

Four adults of various sexes and skin colors, Dr. Camacho and team in front of UTMB Jennie Sealy Hospital

Publications

Select Publications

Zhu, H., Daly, H. C., Yang, T. G., Born, J., Camacho-Hernandez, G. A., Yuan, M., Inglese, M., Chenniappan, V. K., Zimmerman, K., Hurst, R., Hu, X., Newman, A. H., Ferré, S., Ohana, R. F., Hall, M. D., & Patnaik, S. (2025). Development of a HiBiT peptide-based NanoBRET ligand binding assay for galanin receptor 1 in live cells. ACS Chemical Biology, 20(7), 1594–1608. https://doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.5c00166
Camacho-Hernandez, G. A.*, & Newman, A. H.* (2024). A novel fluorescently labelled ligand for the detection of DAT in immune cells by flow cytometry. Neuropsychopharmacology, 50(1), 349–350. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-024-01935-x
Lee, K. H., Camacho-Hernandez, G. A., Newman, A. H., & Shi, L. (2024). The structural basis of the activity cliff in modafinil-based dopamine transporter inhibitors. Biomolecules, 14(6). https://doi.org/10.3390/biom14060713
Camacho-Hernandez, G. A., Gopinath, A., Okorom, A. V., Khoshbouei, H., & Newman, A. H. (2024). Development of a fluorescently labeled ligand for rapid detection of DAT in human and mouse peripheral blood monocytes. JACS Au, 4(2), 657–665. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.3c00719
Ku, T. C.^*, Cao, J.^*, Won, S. J., Guo, J., Camacho-Hernandez, G. A., Okorom, A. V., Salomon, K. W., Lee, K. H., Loland, C. J., Duff, H. J., Shi, L., & Newman, A. H. (2024). Series of (([1,1'-biphenyl]-2-yl)methyl)sulfinylalkyl alicyclic amines as novel and high-affinity atypical dopamine transporter inhibitors with reduced hERG activity. ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science, 7(2), 515–532. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.3c00322
Okorom, A. V.^*, Camacho-Hernandez, G. A.^*, Salomon, K., Lee, K. H., Ku, T. C., Cao, J., Won, S. J., Friedman, J., Lam, J., Paule, J., Rais, R., Klein, B., Xi, Z.-X., Shi, L., Loland, C. J., & Newman, A. H. (2024). Modifications to 1-(4-(2-bis(4-fluorophenyl)methyl)sulfinyl)alkyl alicyclic amines that improve metabolic stability and retain an atypical DAT inhibitor profile. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 67(1), 709–727. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c02037

* Co–first authors.

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ORCiD

PubMed-NCBI

Team

Principal Investigator: Gisela A. Camacho Hernandez, PhD

Outside the lab, Gisela enjoys traveling, cooking, hiking and spending time with her life partner, daughter, two dogs, and extended family and friends.

Dept Web Bio UTMB Research Experts

Selected Honors and Awards

2024 Second place oral presentation, Neuropharmacology division, Early Career Investigator Award Lecture and Postdoctoral Showcase. American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Arlington, VA, USA.
2024 Daniel T. O'Connor Young Investigator Travel Award from the Catecholamine Society. May 16-19, 2024.
2023 NIDA Postdoctoral Fellow Mentoring Award. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, May 2023. Baltimore, MD USA.
2023 NIDA Women in Science, Excellence in Research Award. National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse. May 2023. Baltimore, MD USA.
2023 Travel Award, 15th Annual Behavior, Biology and Chemistry: Translational Research in Substance Use Disorders (BBC) meeting. San Antonio, TX USA.
2022 Selected Highlighted Trainee Author for the month of November, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 2022 Baltimore Brain Series Selected Speaker. The Johns Hopkins University. November 29th, Baltimore, MD USA.
2022 Travel Award, 7th Chemistry & Pharmacology of Drug Abuse (CPDA) meeting. Boston, MA USA.
2022 Travel Award, 2nd International Transmembrane Transporter Society Meeting (ITTS 2022). Copenhagen, Denmark.
2022 NIDA Women in Science, Promising Postdoctoral Award. National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse. Baltimore, MD USA.
2022 Travel Award, 14th Annual Behavior, Biology and Chemistry: Translational Research in Addiction (BBC) meeting. San Antonio, TX USA.
2019 First place, poster competition in Drug Discovery and Development. American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Experimental Biology. Orlando, FL USA.
2017 Akira E. Takemori Graduate Student Travel Award. Experimental Biology, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Chicago, IL USA.
2016 B.P. Doctor Young Investigator Award. XVth International Symposium on Cholinergic Mechanisms. Marseille, France.
2016 Best Neuropharmacology Poster. Pharmacology and training grant program retreat UCSD, San Diego, CA USA.

Timothy J. Chavez, PhD

Ritu Prajapati, MS

Salvatore A. Meccia, BS

Collaboration

Join or Collaborate with Us

Whether you're a prospective student, postdoc, or researcher interested in joining the group, or a potential collaborator eager to explore project ideas—we’d love to hear from you.

We are committed to training and supporting scientists at all levels, and fostering an inclusive, welcoming research environment. Opportunities, positions, and funding options may be available.

Contact Dr. Camacho-Hernandez directly to discuss how you can get involved or collaborate with our team.

Last Updated: November 5, 2025 RMG