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Pharmaceutical Sciences Dept.
Location
Lee T. Todd, Jr. Bldg, Room 347
Phone
859-323-9892
Email
charles.loftin@uky.edu

Dr. Loftin received a Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1995 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.S. in Pharmacy in 1989 from Auburn University. Before joining the University of Kentucky, Dr. Loftin was a Research Fellow with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Dr. Loftin's lab studies the functions of prostanoids, which are lipid mediators formed by most tissues and best known for producing inflammation. Prostanoids are synthesized by the cyclooxygenases that are better known as COX-1 and COX-2. The COX enzymes are targets of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, and the COX-2-selective inhibitor celecoxib. By utilizing pharmacological inhibitors of the COX enzymes together with mice genetically deficient in either COX-1 or COX-2, Dr. Loftin's lab has identified a variety of different physiological and pathophysiological processes that are dependent on either COX-1 or COX-2. These include prenatal and postnatal vascular development, protection against pathogen-induced atherosclerosis, adipose tissue differentiation, vascular remodeling associated with aortic aneurysm initiation and progression, and vascular smooth muscle cell phenotypic modulation. The goal of this work is to identify targets down-stream of the COX isoforms that will lead to the development of medications with novel therapeutic benefit and which lack the adverse effects of currently available COX inhibitors.

PUBLICATIONS

Interests

Education & Appointments

Education:

  • PhD Univ Of North Carolina
  • BSPharm Auburn University

Position:

  • Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

We wish to remember and honor those who inhabited this Commonwealth before the arrival of the Europeans. Briefly occupying these lands were the Osage, Wyndott tribe, and Miami peoples. The Adena and Hopewell peoples, who are recognized by the naming of the time period in which they resided here, were here more permanently. Some of their mounds remain in the Lexington area, including at UK’s Adena Park.

In more recent years, the Cherokee occupied southeast Kentucky, the Yuchi southwest Kentucky, the Chickasaw extreme western Kentucky and the Shawnee central Kentucky including what is now the city of Lexington. The Shawnee left when colonization pushed through the Appalachian Mountains. Lower Shawnee Town ceremonial grounds are still visible in Greenup County.

We honor the first inhabitants who were here, respect their culture, and acknowledge the presence of their descendants who are here today in all walks of life including fellow pharmacists and healthcare professionals.