Robert Haining Email & Phone Number

I learned to manipulate DNA with the aim of understanding structure and function of proteins as a graduate student. I used this experience as a post-doctoral research associate in medicinal chemistry to understand human pharmacogenetics and am now have considerable expertise in this area.I became interested in tissue-specific metabolism and in particular, neuronal metabolism. After writing a review article on cytochrome P450's I gained a new appreciation for the central role this superfamily plays not just in 'drug metabolism' but in endogenous pathways. While researching ideas for a grant proposal on CYP2D6, I became aware of the neuromelanin granules present in dopaminergic neurons of adult humans. As I had never been exposed to the idea that melanin was present deep in human brain, I began asking questions and to my surprise was effectively told that the medical and scientific communities have dismissed melanin as uninteresting, non-essential, and mostly inactive in human brain. Nonsense, I said. This molecule has some incredibly intriguing properties. Most notably, it is a very large pi-conjugated system. But because it forms spontaneously and does not possess a regular ordered structure, it has been overlooked and misunderstood. I believe this is about to change.

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  Whitman College

  Chemistry