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Biosketch
Dr. Wermeling is Associate Professor (with tenure) at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy.
He received his PharmD degree in 1983 from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. In 1985 he completed a 2-year clinical pharmacy residency at the AB Chandler Medical Center in Lexington, KY. In 1987 he completed a drug development fellowship under Dr. Thomas Foster at the University Of Kentucky College Of Pharmacy.
After a brief stint in pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Wermeling became an Assistant Research Professor and Director of the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy Drug Product Evaluation Unit, and, Director of the UK Hospital Department of Pharmacy Investigational Drug Service. Since joining the faculty he has practiced at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, taught courses in analgesic therapeutics, drug delivery, and clinical research methods.
He has led multidisciplinary clinical research programs and projects with investigational drugs. He was also co-founder of the Medical Center’s clinical trials office.
Dr. Wermeling has an active interest in pharmaceutical development and has advanced university intellectual property from non-clinical status to clinical development protocols by filing Investigational New Drug applications with FDA. Dr. Wermeling has considerable pharmaceutical regulatory experience.
Dr. Wermeling has an extensive clinical research and drug development experience. Although he has studied a wide variety of therapeutic entities, a significant portion of his experience is with opiate pain medications, benzodiazepines, analgesic medications and drug delivery systems. Dr. Wermeling has published widely in this area. He is also an expert in nasal drug delivery biopharmaceutics, drug delivery and clinical research.
He has co-founded a company, Intranasal Therapeutics, Inc., that was a spin-out from the College of Pharmacy. The research resulted in 6 patent submissions, of which two have been issued.
His research has served as a basis for training students, residents, and graduate students in clinical research methodologies. He instructs 2nd year professional pharmacy students in the treatment of pain and the use of analgesics.
Dr. Wermeling’s latest research is to examine whether medications used chronically for the treatment of alcoholism can be administered acutely to treat the craving and urges that lead to relapse. He has designed intranasal medication and delivery systems that permit rapid absorption and systemic availability. Moreover, with a team of scientists from the Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center (MRISC), Departments of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, and financial and operational support from the Clinical Research and Development Operations Center (CR-DOC), he has developed a novel test system utilizing functional MRI as a tool to study the rapidly absorbed medication’s effects on neuronal activation within regions of the brain recognized to sub-serve craving and urges to drink. Subsequent research will examine if the rapidly absorbed medication systems can affect drinking behavior.
Affiliation
- Associate Professor (with tenure), UK College of Pharmacy
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