- Natural Products
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Drug Discovery
- GPCRs
- Analgesics
- Substance Use Disorders
Kevin Tidgewell, PhD
Assistant Professor
Tidgewell grew up in southern California before heading east to earn his BS in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics from Mercyhurst College (now University). He then joined the Prisinzano lab at the University of Iowa, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2007, working to develop non-addictive analgesics based on the plant hallucinogen Salvinorin A.
Tidgewell returned to southern California for a Post-Doc in the Gerwick Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California, San Diego. He spent two years working at SIO on cancer drug discovery from marine cyanobacteria before moving to Panama to work on Dr. Gerwick’s ICBG project at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Tidgewell spent just over two years working in Panama on neglected tropical diseases drug discovery from marine cyanobacteria before starting a faculty position at Duquesne University in 2012.
The Tidgewell lab moved to Kentucky in July of 2023, and the work focuses on combining marine natural products with synthetic, medicinal chemistry to discover and better understand novel compounds from marine cyanobacteria for CNS disorders.
Expertise
Education
- B.S. - Chemistry, Mercyhurst University
- Ph.D. - Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry, University of Iowa
- Post-Doctoral Fellowship - Marine Natural Products, UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Post-Doctoral Fellowship - Marine Natural Products, The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
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.