Dr. Paul Whiteaker has over two decades of experience working in nicotinic acetylcholine receptor research. He has provided original insights that have helped to define the subunit composition and functional and ligand-binding pharmacology of naturally expressed nicotinic receptor subtypes.

More recently, he has established a research program to recapitulate the diversity of naturally expressed nicotinic receptors using heterologous expression systems. This research background has provided Dr. Whiteaker with a wealth of experience in devising, exploiting, and publishing on novel nicotinic model systems, pharmacological agents, and assays. Current areas of focus are mutually supporting and include receptor structure and function studies, development of novel pharmacological reagents (with a particular emphasis on highly selective peptides derived from naturally occurring α-conotoxin ligands), and development of high throughput-capable assays. The resulting insights and reagents will be used to probe the roles of nicotinic receptors in normal and disease physiological processes, and to identify novel pharmacotherapeutic possibilities.

Dr. Whiteaker is a graduate of the University of Bath, in the United Kingdom. He performed postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado – Boulder before joining the faculty at Barrow Neurological Institute in 2008, where he is an associate professor.