Phillip M Gerk, Ph.D.
Vice Chairman
Professor
Department of Pharmaceutics
Faculty/Staff picture
  •   Smith Building, Room 454F
  • School of Pharmacy - Dept of Pharmaceutics
    410 N 12th Street
    Box 980533
    Richmond, VA 23298-0533
  •  (804) 828-6321
    (804) 828-8359

Education

  • Ph.D., Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences (University of Kentucky, 2000)
  • Pharm.D., Pharmacy (University of Illinois at Chicago, 1993)

Professional Experience

  • (2012 - Present) Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • (2004 - 2012) Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • (2000 - 2004) Post-Doctoral Scholar/Fellow, University of Kentucky, Graduate Center for Toxicology
  • (1995 - 2000) Graduate Student, University of Kentucky, College of Pharmacy
  • (1993 - 1995) Clinical Research Fellow, Auburn University School of Pharmacy

Professional and Scholarly Interests

  • ABC transporters on maternal-fetal drug transport pharmacokinetics
  • Maternal and fetal health during pregnancy and after birth
  • Optimizing maternal and fetal exposure through appropriate drug therapy
  • Presystemic metabolism and oral bioavailability
  • Transporter-directed prodrug strategy for tissue targeting of antiretroviral drugs
  • Permeability, transport, and metabolism of novel drug candidates
  • Pharmacokinetics of natural compounds
  • Innovative teaching methods in pharmacokinetics
  • New experimental methods in drug transport and metabolism
  • Bioanalytical method development

Research Interests

  • Overview: The Gerk Lab takes an innovative, collaborative, multidisciplinary approach toward investigating problems regarding pharmacokinetic mechanisms (drug transport, metabolism, and protein binding). Such an approach involves collaboration and expertise in several scientific areas. Major efforts are briefly described below. Some technologies are available for licensing and/or development agreements through the VCU Technology Transfer office < http://www.research.vcu.edu/ott/>.
  • Enhancing Oral Bioavailability: Many phenolic compounds (including drugs and natural products/herbal/dietary supplements) have low and variable oral bioavailability due to extensive presystemic metabolism, especially in the intestine. This creates a barrier to effective oral delivery of these molecules. We have a patented approach temporarily adjust this barrier to facilitate the absorption of the intact molecule into blood circulation. Our lab studies interactions between drug metabolism and drug transport to make oral dosing of potentially beneficial drugs and natural products more effective and reliable. We combine this approach also with solubility- and permeability-enhancing techniques such as nano-emulsion formulations.
  • Presystemic Drug Metabolism: While hepatic metabolism constitutes the bulk of the "first-pass effect," for some compounds with low oral bioavailability intestinal metabolism contributes significantly. Establishing the enzymes and their substrate selectivity will enable new strategies to enhance oral bioavailability for certain compounds.
  • Research Tools: The Gerk Lab is always seeking to create and establish new and improved experimental methods for studies on pharmacokinetic mechanisms and biopharmaceutics.

Publications

PubMed Search
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Books/Book Chapters

  • PM Gerk and M Vore. Multidrug resistance proteins and hepatic transport of endo-and xenobiotics. Drug Metabolism and Transport: Molecular Methods and Mechanisms. Larry H. Lash, Editor. Humana Press, Inc. (2004).

Patents

  • Gerk PM, Walsh SW, Landsberg AK: "Prodrugs Utilizing A Transporter Directed Uptake Mechanism", US Patent Application PCT/US2011/055231.

Recent Publications

  • Gulati A, Gerk PM. Role of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters in antiretroviral therapy in pregnancy. J Pharm Sci 2009; 98:2317-35. PMID: 19067393
  • Gulati A, Boudinot FD, Gerk PM.Binding of lopinavir to human a1-acid glycoprotein and serum albumin. Drug Metab Disp 2009; 37:1572-5. PMID: 19439488
  • Vaidya SS, Walsh SW, Gerk PM.Formation and efflux of ATP-binding cassette transporter substrate 2,4 dinitrophenyl S-glutathione from cultured human term placental villous tissue fragments. Mol Pharmaceutics 2009; 6:1689-1702. PMID: 19397308
  • Lenhart J, Ling X, Gandhi R, Gerk PM, Brunzell D, Zhang S. “Clicked” bivalent ligands containing curcumin and cholesterol as multifunctional Aß oligomerization inhibitors: Design, synthesis and biological characterization. J Med Chem 2010; 53(16):6198-209. PMID:20666513
  • Verenich S, Gerk PM. Therapeutic promises of 2-methoxyestradiol and its drug disposition challenges. Mol Pharmaceutics 2010: 7(6)2030-9. PMID:20831190
  • Vaidya SS, Walsh SW, Gerk PM. Application of Human Placental Villous Tissue Explants to Study ABC Transporter Mediated Efflux of 2,4-Dinitrophenyl-S-Glutathione. Curr Pharm Biotechnol 2011; 12:814-23. PMID:21342117
  • Gerk PM. Quantitative immunofluorescent blotting of the Multidrug Resistance-associated Protein 2 (MRP2). J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods 2011; 63:279-82. PMID:21277982
  • Brophy D, Martin E, Barrett J, Nolte M, Kuhn J, Gerk P, Carr M, Pelzer H, Ezban M, Hedner U. Monitoring rFVIIa 90 mcg kg-1 dosing in hemophiliacs: comparing laboratory response using various whole blood assays over six hours. Haemophilia 2011; 17:e949-57. PMID:21362113
  • Megaraj V, Zhao T, Paumi CM, Gerk PM, Kim R, Vore M. Functional Analysis of Non-synonymous Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of Multidrug Resistance Protein 2 (MRP2; ABCC2). Pharmacogenetics and Genomics 2011; 21:506-15. PMID: 21691255
  • Mitra P, Venitz J, Yuan Y, Zhang Y, Gerk PM. Preclinical Disposition (in vitro) of Novel µ-Opioid Receptor Antagonists. Drug Metab Disp 2011; 39:1589-96. PMID:21685245
  • Clay PG, Adiga R, Taylor TAH, Alsup R, Gerk PM and McRae MP. Postpartum Pharmacokinetics of Peramivir in the Treatment of 2009 H1N1 Influenza. Obstet Gynecol 2011; 118:463-7. PMID: 21768855
  • Li W, Araya M, Elliott M, Kang X, Gerk PM, Halquist MS, Karnes HT, Zhang C, O'Brien PJ. Monitoring cellular accumulation of 3'-deoxy-3'-fluorothymidine (FLT) and its monophosphate metabolite (FLT-MP) by LC-MS/MS as a measure of cell proliferation in vitro." J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci 2011; 879: 2963-70. PMID: 21925976
  • Yuan Y, Li G, He H, Stevens DL, Kozak P, Scoggins KL, Mitra P, Gerk PM, Selley DE, Dewey WL and Zhang Y. Characterization of 6a- and 6ß-N-Heterocyclic Substituted Naltrexamine Derivatives as Novel Leads to Development of Mu Opioid Receptor Selective Antagonists. ACS Chemical Neuroscience 2011; 2:346-51. PMID: 22816021