Contact Information

501B College of Pharmacy
725 Rose Street
Lexington, KY 40536

phone: 859-257-1718
fax: 859-257-7585

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Positions

• Professor
  Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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 23 Ph.D. students and eight M.S. students, and has trained 51 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 447 peer-reviewed research articles, 523 symposium abstracts, and has over 100 patents and patent applications in the drug discovery area. Click here for Dr. Crooks' CV .

Dr. Crooks has been the founder or cofounder of six 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 is a past Chairman of the Drug Design and Discovery Section of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and currently serves as a Member-at-large on the Executive Committee of that organization.

Selected Publications/Presentations

• Cellulose Sulfuric Acid: An Efficient biodegradable and Recyclable Solid Acid Catalyst for the One-pot synthesis of Aryl-14H-dibenzo[a.j.]xanthenes Under Solvent-free conditions. J. Venu Madhav, Y. Thirupathi Reddy, P. Narsimha Reddy, M. Nikhil Reddy, Suresh Kuarm, Peter A. Crooks, and B. Rajitha. Journal of Molecular Catalysis-A.2009. Chemical 304, 85-87.
• Sulfamic Acid Catalyzed One-pot Synthesis of 2,5-Diaryl-1,3,4-Oxadiazoles Under Irradiation and Conventional Heating. J. Venu Madhav, Y. Thirupathi Reddy, P. Narsimha Reddy, Peter. A. Crooks, V. Naveen Kumar and B. Rajitha. J. Heterocyclic Chemistry, 2009, 46, 289-293.
• Cellulose Sulfuric Acid: An Efficient Biodegradable and Recyclable Solid Acid Catalyst for the One-pot Synthesis of 3,4-Dihydropyrimidine-2(1H)-ones. Penthala Narsimha Reddy, Y. Thirupathi Reddy, M. Nikhil Reddy, Bavntula Rajitha, and Peter. A. Crooks. Synth. Comm., 2009, 39, 1257-1263.
• A Scalable, Enantioselective Synthesis of the a2-Adrenergic Agonist, Lofexidine. Ashish P. Vartak and Peter A. Crooks. Organic Process Research and Development, 2009, 13, 414-418.
• N-Chlorosuccinimide is a Convenient Oxidant for the Synthesis of 2,4-Disubstituted 1,2,4-Thiadiazolidine-3,5-diones. Shama Nasim and Peter A. Crooks. Tetrahedron Letters, 2009, 50, 257-259.
• Nicotine Exposure can be Detected from LC-MS Analysis of Cerebrospinal Fluid from Active and Passive Smokers. Ahmad Malkawi, Abeer Al-Ghananeem, Jose de Leon, and Peter A. Crooks. Pharm. Biomed. Anal., 2009, 49, 129-132.
• Synthesis and Antitubercular Activity of a Series of Hydrazone and Nitrovinyl Analogs Derived from Heterocyclic Aldehydes. Vijayakumar N. Sonar and Peter A. Crooks. J. Enz. Inhibit. Medicin. Chem., 2009, 24(1), 117-124.
• Targeting Reward-Relevant Nicotinic Receptors in the Discovery of Novel Pharmacotherapeutic Agents to Treat Tobacco Dependence. Linda P. Dwoskin, Marharyta Pivavarchyk, Barry M. Joyce, Nichole M. Neugebauer, Guangrong Zheng, Zhenfa Zhang, Michael T. Bardo, and Peter A. Crooks. Invited chapter, 55th Annual Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: The Motivational Impact of Nicotine and its Role in tobacco Use. Eds. R.A. Bevins and A.R. Caggiula, Chapter 4, Nebr. Symp. Motiv., 2009, 55, 31-63, Springer, NY.
• Computational Neural Network Analysis of the Affinity of N-n-Alkylnicotinium Salts for the a4ß2* Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor. Fang Zheng, Chang-Guo Zhan, Linda P. Dwoskin, and Peter A. Crooks. J. Enz. Inhibit. Med. Chem., 2009, 24 (1), 157-168.
• 3-(2-Amino-1-methyl-4-oxo-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazole-5-yl)-3-hydroxyindolein-2-one Monohydrate. Narismha Reddy Penthala, Thirupathi Reddy Yerram Reddy, Sean Parkin, and Peter A. Crooks. Acta Crystallogr., Section E, 2009, E65, o552.
• Indolyl-quinuclidinols Inhibit ENOX Activity and Endothelial Cell Morphogenesis While Enhancing Radiation-mediated Control of Tumor Vasculature. Ling Geng, Girish Rachakonda, D. James Morré, Dorothy M. Morre, Peter A. Crooks, Vijayakumar N. Sonar, Joseph L. Roti Roti, Buck E. Rogers, Suellen Greco, Fei Ye, Kenneth J. Salleng, Soumya Sasi, Michael L. Freeman, and Konjeti R. Sekhar. The FASEB Journal, published on-line; DOI: 10.1096/fj.09-130005; PMID No. 19395476, April 24th, 2009.
• The Novel Nicotinic Receptor Antagonist, N,N’-Dodecane-1,12-diyl-bis¬-3-picolinium Dibromide (bPiDDB), Inhibits Nicotine-Evoked [3H]Norepinephrine Overflow from Rat Hippocampal Slices. Andrew M. Smith, Gurpreet K. Dhawan, Zhenfa Zhang, Kiran B. Siripurapu, Peter A. Crooks and Linda P. Dwoskin. Biochemical Pharmacology, 2009, 78, 889-897.
• Nicotinic Receptor-based Therapeutics and Candidates for Smoking Cessation. Linda P. Dwoskin, Andrew M. Smith, Thomas E. Wooters, Zhenfa Zhang, Peter A. Crooks, and Michael T. Bardo. Biochemical Pharmacology, 2009, 78, 732-743.
• QSAR Study on Maximal Inhibition (Imax) of Quaternary Ammonium Salts for S-(-)-Nicotine–evoked Dopamine Release from Dopaminergic Terminals in Rat Striatum. Fang Zheng, Mathew McConell, Chang-Guo Zhan, Linda P. Dwoskin, and Peter A. Crooks. Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry, 2009, 17, 4477-4485.
• Aminoparthenolides as Novel Anti-leukemic Agents: Discovery of the NF-?B Inhibitor, DMAPT (LC-1). Sundar Neelakantan, Shama Nasim, Monica Guzman, Craig T. Jordan and Peter A. Crooks. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2009, 19, 4346-4349.
• Stereocontrolled Synthesis and Pharmacological Evaluation of cis-2,6-Diphenethyl-1-azabicyclo[2.2.2]octanes as Lobelane Analogues. Guangrong Zheng, Linda P. Dwoskin, Agripina G. Deaciuc, and Peter A. Crooks. J. Org. Chem., 2009, 74, 6072-6076.
• In vivo Evaluation of Diaminodiphenyls: Anticonvulsant Agents with Minimal Acute Neurotoxicity. David R. Worthen, Aimee K. Bence, James P. Stables, and Peter A. Crooks. Bioorganic Med. Chem. Lett., 2009; 19, 5012-5015.
• Selective Inhibition of Acetylcholine-evoked Responses of ?7 Neuronal Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors by Novel tris- and tetrakis-Azaaromatic Quaternary Ammonium Antagonists. Gretchen Y. López-Hernández, Jeffrey S. Thinschmidt, Guangrong Zheng, Zhenfa Zhang, Peter A. Crooks, Linda. P. Dwoskin, and Roger L. Papke. Mol. Pharmacol., 2009, 76, 652-666.
• rac- and (+)-[4,4’,5,5’-2H4]-2-(2’,6”-Dichlororphenoxy]-ethyl)-?2-imidazoline (Lofexidine). Ashish P. Vartak, Vijayakumar Sonar, and Peter A. Crooks. J. Labelled Comp.Pharmaceuticals, in press, 2009; DOI: 10.1002/jlcr.1655.
• Pyrrolidine Analogs of Lobelane: Relationship of Affinity for the Dihydrotetrabenazine Binding Site with Function of the Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2 (VMAT2). Ashish P. Vartak, Justin R. Nickell, Jaturaporn Chagkutip, Linda P. Dwoskin, and Peter A. Crooks. J. Med. Chem., in press, 2009; DOI: 10.1021/jm900770h
• Synthesis of Novel Isoluminol Probes and their Use in Rapid Bacterial Assays. Sundar Neelakantan, Iwan Surjawan, Huseyin Karacelik, Clair L. Hicks and Peter A. Crooks. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., in press, 2009; DOI: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2009.08.004.
• First Principles Determination of Molecular Conformations of Indolizidine (-)-235B’ in Solutions. Fang Zheng, Linda P. Dwoskin, Peter A. Crooks, and Chang-Guo Zhan. Theor. Chem. Acc., accepted for publication, 2009; DOI: 10.1007/s00214-009-0607-z.