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Eric C. Peterson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Eric C. Peterson, Ph.D.
PHD
University of Arkansas, 2002

Research Interests
The overall goal of our research is to develop new antibody-based medications to treat chronic and acute methamphetamine (METH) abuse. We are currently accomplishing this goal through two projects in the laboratory. In the first project we are combining antibody therapy and nanotechnology to generate an adaptable range of anti-METH medications (dendribodies) that will have applicability to important therapeutic treatment (e.g., a short-acting medication for overdose and a long-acting, low volume of distribution medication needed for chronic treatment of addiction). These studies will provide the first detailed information on the necessary design features and molecular principles required to create an advanced new generation of novel pharmacokinetic antagonists for the treatment of drug abuse. In a second collaborative project with researchers in the UAMS Department Physiology and Biophysics, we are using x-ray crystallography to determine the molecular structures of our highest activity anti-METH antibodies. We are using the resulting structural data and recombinant molecular technologies to engineer a new generation of clinically relevant humanized antibodies with enhanced efficacy against METH.

E-mail
EPeterson@uams.edu

Selected Publications
Peterson EC, Owens SM: Designing immunotherapies to thwart drug abuse. Mol Interv 9:119-124, 2009.

Peterson EC, Laurenzana EM, Atchley WT, Hendrickson HP, Owens SM: Development and preclinical testing of a high-affinity single-chain antibody against (+)-methamphetamine. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 325:124-133, 2008.

Peterson EC, Gunnell M, Che Y, Goforth RL, Carroll FI, Henry R, Liu H, Owens SM: Using haptin design to discover therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for treating methamphetamine abuse. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 322:30-39, 2007.

View Dr. Peterson's PubMed publications.

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
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Little Rock, AR 72205
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