Jack W. Strandhoy, Ph.D.

Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology
Associate in Medicine (Nephrology)
Associate in Surgical Sciences (Hypertension Center)

     My area of research interest is in kidney function and renal development.  Our laboratory made important contributions to the study of how adrenergic nerve signals and drugs that stimulate alpha-adrenoceptors modulate sodium transport by the nephron.  Affinity differences between some antihypertensive drugs for renal adrenergic and imidazoline receptors explain clinical sodium retention problems in patients.  Current research focuses on the neonatal development of kidney function and how prenatal steroid exposure imprints functional changes that may emerge as hypertension in adult life.

     I am also very active and interested in medical and graduate education.  I am the director for the year-long Systems Pathophysiology course in the medical curriculum, and also teach biomedical engineers and graduate students in six courses.  I am a member of the medical school’s Core Teaching Faculty, serve on the boards of two international medical education societies, and was selected to serve on the Pharmacology committee of the National Board of Medical Examiners.  I’ve been honored with twelve teaching awards.  I am a co-investigator and faculty member of a very successful NIDA-sponsored Addiction Studies Program for Journalists, now in its seventh year.  It has trained hundreds of national print and media journalists in the science behind public policy and clinical treatment programs in drug abuse.  I help and support our department’s efforts to impart teaching and communication skills to our students in parallel with growth in laboratory and intellectual competence.