Prof. Thomas Prisinzano

Dr. Thomas E Prisinzano currently serves as the Director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation (CPRI) and the Chair of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Delaware (1995) and a doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond (2000). From 2000-2003, he was an Intramural Training Award (IRTA) Fellow at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Prisinzano has received a number of awards for his research, including a Matt Suffness (Young Investigator) Award from the American Society of Pharmacognosy (2008), a Joseph Cochin Young Investigator Award from the College on Drug Dependence (2011), a David W. Robertson Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry from the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (2012), and an Innovator Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (2018). His research combines medicinal and natural product chemistry and is directed toward the elucidation of the structure and function of neurotransmitter systems in the central nervous system in normal, drug-altered, and pathological states and the development of medications for the treatment of drug abuse and pain.