Current Research:

Drug metabolism and analysis of drugs and metabolites in biological fluids.

Bio:

Michael A. Zemaitis PhD is Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. He received a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh, and earned the Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology from the Milton S. Hershey Medical of the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Zemaitis has been a faculty member since 1975 and served as Department Vice-Chair and Interim Chair between 1998 and 2005.

Dr. Zemaitis has served as an analytical toxicology consultant to local clinical laboratories and as a pharmacology consultant to the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare and the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General. He was also a charter member of the Pennsylvania Drug Utilization Review (DUR) Board. Dr. Zemaitis is an active member of several scientific societies such as: the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the Society of Toxicology, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the American Pharmacists Association.

Dr. Zemaitis teaches in the professional and graduate programs in the School of Pharmacy. He is principal instructor in two four credit courses and lectures in four other courses. He also teaches a pharmacology course in the Graduate Nursing Program (Nurse Practitioner) and portions of the pharmacology course offered to second year students in the School of Dental Medicine. The Nursing course is sent by interactive TV to Pitt campuses at Johnstown and Bradford. Dr. Zemaitis is extensively involved in classroom improvements and the use of new technology in teaching in the School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Zemaitis' current area of research interest is in biochemical pharmacology with special interest in drug and metabolite analysis in biological fluids. Over the past 4-5 years, he has developed an analytical lab that utilizes HPLC, gas chromatography, immunoassay and GC-mass spectrometry to analyze a wide range of drugs and hormones. Precise assays have been developed in support of several departmental studies of cytochrome P-450 (CYP) mediated drug metabolism. Particularly, important "isozyme probes" and CYP inhibitors such as lidocaine, midazolam and fluconazole are analyzed by GC/MS. He also has interest in the analysis of neurosteroids that may be important mediators of the effects of certain centrally acting drugs. He has developed unique GC-MS methods for analysis of the adrenal androgens dehydroepiandrosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and has completed preliminary work related to GC-MS analysis of progesterone metabolites that may have effects in the central nervous system. Current work involves measurement of arachadonic metabolites in several tissues.
Dr. Zemaitis is involved in many areas of the curriculum including course development, course evaluation, and teaching assignments. He is a member of the following University and School-wide committees: Graduate Faculty, School of Pharmacy Promotion and Tenure Committee (Chairman), Council on Academic Computing, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Equipment and Safety Committee (Chairman) and the Health Sciences Faculty Advisory Committee.