Peter Crooks - Ph.D.

Dr. Crooks is George A. Digenis Professor in Drug Design and Discovery at the College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky. Dr. Crooks received his BS (1966), MS (1967) and Ph.D. (1970) from the University of Manchester, Department of Pharmacy, UK, where he served on the Faculty from 1968-1981. He also spent two years as a research associate in the Department of Pharmacology, Sterling Hall of Medicine, Yale University (1976 - 1978). Dr. Crooks joined the faculty of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky in 1981. He is a member of the Markey Cancer Center, affiliate of the Sanders Brown Center for Aging, a faculty associate in the Center of Membrane Sciences, and holds a joint faculty appointment in the Graduate Center for Toxicology. He has graduated 21 Ph.D. students and eight M.S. students, and has trained 43 post-doctoral fellows and visiting scientists in his laboratory.

Dr. Crooks is internationally known for his research work in drug discovery, delivery, and development, which includes drug design and synthesis, pharmacophore development, drug biotransformation studies, prodrug design, and medicinal plant natural product research. His research also focuses on preclinical drug development, including drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics in animal models, dosage form development, and drug delivery assessment using both conventional and non-conventional routes, and preformulation/formulation studies. A major emphasis of his laboratory research focuses on drug abuse, which includes the design and discovery of neuroprotective agents of clinical utility in minimizing the neuronal damage that results as a consequence of detoxification in alcoholism; the development of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonists as novel smoking cessation agents; and the development of modulators of the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2) as novel treatments for psychostimulant abuse. Dr. Crooks also has strong research programs in the design and discovery of new opiate and non-opiate analgesics, new anticancer agents, novel radio/thermal sensitization agents, and radioprotection agents. He is author of over 300 peer-reviewed research articles, 330 symposium abstracts, and holds over 100 patents in the drug discovery area. Click here for Dr. Crooks' CV [ms word].

Dr. Crooks has been the founder or cofounder of four drug discovery companies and has had extensive experience in overseeing the development of drug candidates from the early phases of discovery through the drug developmental process. Several drugs discovered in his laboratory are currently in various phases of clinical development.

Dr. Crooks is a member of various professional organizations, including AAPS and ACS. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He is currently Regional Editor (USA) of the Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Crooks has served on the Drug Development and Drug Delivery and National Cooperative Drug Discovery groups NIH Study Sections (1992-2004), and is a former member of the Office of Extramural Program Review Committee, Contracts Review Branch of the NIH. He has also served as an expert witness for the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, Government of Canada. He currently serves as Chairman of the Drug Design and Discovery Section of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.

Selected Publications/Presentations

• The Pharmacological Activity of Nicotine and Nornicotine on nAChR Subtypes: Relevance to Nicotine Dependence and Drug Discovery. By Roger L. Papke, Linda P. Dwoskin, and Peter A. Crooks, J. Neurochemistry, 2007, 101, 160-167.
• Computational Neural Network Analysis of the Affinity of Lobeline and Tetrabenazine Analogs for the Vesicular Monoamine Transporter-2. By Fang Zheng, Guangrong Zheng, A. Gabriela Deaciuc, Chang-Guo Zhan, Linda P. Dwoskin and Peter A. Crooks, Bioorg. Med. Chem., 2007, 15, 2975-2992.
• Phase I and Phase II Ocular Metabolic Activities and the Role of Metabolism in Ophthalmic Prodrug and Codrug Design and Delivery. By Abeer M. Al-Ghananeem and Peter A. Crooks, Molecules, 2007, 12, 373-388.
• (Z)-2-(1-Benzyl-5-nitro-1H-indol-3-ylmethylene)-1-azabicyclo[2.2.2]octan-3-one. By Vijayakumar N. Sonar, Sean Parkin and Peter A. Crooks, Acta Crystallogr., Section C, 2007, C63, o135-o136.
• Novel Chemical Enhancers of Heat Shock Increase Thermal Radiosensitization Through a Mitotic Catastrophe Pathway. By Konjeti R Sekhar, Vijayakumar N. Sonar, Venkatraj Muthusamy, Soumya Sasi, Andrei Laszlo, Jamil Swani, Nobuo Horikoshi, Ryji Higashikubo, Robert G. Bristow, Michael J. Borrelli, Peter A. Crooks, James R. Lepock, Joseph L. Roti Roti, and Michael L. Freeman, Cancer Res., 2007, 67, 695-701.
• Effects on Nornicotine Enantiomers on Intravenous S(-)-Nicotine Self-Administration and Cardiovascular Function in Rats. By Dustin J. Stairs, Nicole M. Neugebauer, Xiaochen Wei, C. Boustany, Marhaba Hojahmet, Lisa A. Cassis, Peter A. Crooks, and Linda P. Dwoskin, Michael T. Bardo, Psychopharmacology, 2007, 190, 145-155.
• "The Effects of a Novel Nicotinic Receptor Antagonist N, N-Dodecane-1, 12-diyl-bis-picolinium dibromide (bPiDDB) on Acute and Repeated Nicotine-induced Increases in Extracellular Dopamine in Rat Nucleus Accumbens. By Shafiq Rahman, Nicole M. Neugebauer, Zhenfa Zhang, Peter A. Crooks, Linda P. Dwoskin, and Michael T. Bardo, Neuropharmacology, 2007, 52, 755-763.
• Modern Instrumental Methods for Studying Mechanisms of Toxicology." By Peter A. Crooks, David R. Worthen, Gary D. Byrd, J. Donald deBethizy, and William S. Caldwell, in: Principles and Methods of Toxicology, Fifth Edition, Ed. A. Wallace Hayes, Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia, 2007, Chapter 41, pp 2049-2120.