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School of Pharmacy

team: UWPKDAP

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Jashvant Unadkat

Education

  • PhD, University of Manchester
  • B. Pharm, University of London

Research Interests

  • Mechanisms of drug transport and metabolism
  • Maternal-fetal pharmacology

Courses Taught

  • PCEUT 501
  • PCEUT 506
  • PCEUT 532

Biography

Jashvant (Jash) Unadkat, Ph.D. is a Professor of Pharmaceutics at the School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle. He received his Bachelor degree in Pharmacy (B.Pharm.) from the University of London (1977), his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester (1982) and his postdoctoral training at the University of California at San Francisco (1982-85).

Dr. Unadkat studies the mechanisms of transport and metabolism of drugs, including during pregnancy. Dr. Unadkat has published more than 270 peer-reviewed research papers. He is a fellow of AAAS, AAPS, JSSX, and the founding co-chair (1999-2001) of the focus group of AAPS on Drug Transport and Uptake. Dr. Unadkat received the AAPS Research Achievement Award in 2012, the ISSX Research Achievement Award in 2023 . Dr. Unadkat created and led for 10 years the UW Research Affiliates Program on Transporters (UWRAPT), funded by pharmaceutical companies, and UWPKDAP, a NIDA funded Program Project grant (P01) on drug disposition during pregnancy. He now co-leads the UW Transporter Elucidation Center (https://depts.washington.edu/uwtec/) funded by NICHD to identify and characterize novel transporters in the placenta and the developing intestine.  In 2025, Dr. Unadkat was elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences and as a President-elect of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX).  

Selected Publications

(PubMed.gov)

Edward Kelly

Courses Taught:

  • PCEUT201
  • PCEUT502
  • PCEUT580
  • PCEUT586
  • PHG513

Education History:

BS, Biochemistry, UC-Riverside

MS, Biochemistry, UC-Riverside

PhD, Biochemistry, University of Washington

Biography: 

Dr. Kelly holds the rank of Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Pharmaceutics (School of Pharmacy) and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (School of Public Health). He is also an Investigator in the Kidney Research Institute at the UW School of Medicine and serves as Co-Director of the Pharmaceutical Bioengineering Extension Program.

The focus of the Kelly lab is ex vivo modeling of human organ function and drug/toxin-induced injury.  This research utilizes 3D-microfluidic “organs on chips” or microphysiological systems (MPS) as an alternative to animal testing. Our scope of work includes using MPS technologies to model how the kidney responds to microgravity on the International Space Station, how environmental toxins may modulate chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu) and the effects of glomerular disease on proximal tubule function. He is also part of a consortium to qualify a kidney MPS for defined contexts of use.

Selected Publications:

  1. Arian CM, O’Mahony ET, Manwill PK, Graf TN, Oberlies NH, Cech NB, Clarke JD, Smith JG, Paine MF, Kelly EJ & Thummel KE. A gut response: Application of human enteroid monolayers to probe the mechanism of the goldenseal-mediated inhibition of metformin intestinal absorption. The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpet.2025.103597 2025. PMID: 40403579
  2. Tsang YP, Aryeh KS, Wang K, Himmelfarb J, Yeung CK & Kelly EJ*. Enhancing therapeutic strategies and drug development for patients with kidney disease. Expert Opinion on Drug Safety https://doi.org/10.1080/14740338.2025.2525970  2025. PMID: 40568828
  3. Hansen BC, Arian CM, Zeng Y, Takezawa MG, Theberge AB, Faustman EM, Thummel KE & Kelly EJ*. Leveraging RNA-seq deconvolution to improve complex in vitro model characterization. Journal of Biological Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2025.110510 2025. PMID: 40701251
  4. O’Mahony ET, Arian CM, Aryeh KS, Wang K, Thummel KE & Kelly EJ*. Human intestinal enteroids: nonclinical applications for predicting oral drug disposition, toxicity and efficacy. Pharmacology and Therapeutics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2025.108879 2025. PMID: 40398537
  5. Hansen BC, Aryeh KS, Lindell LX, Lau GK, Nicholson TM, Faustman EM & Kelly EJ*. In vitro models of the male reproductive system: applications for developmental and reproductive toxicology. Toxicological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfaf132 2025. PMID: 41002216
  6. Mahadeo A, Tsang YP, Zheng AR, Arnzen S, Rodriguez AG, Warren MS, G?borik Z & Kelly EJ*. Human OAT1, OAT3, OAT4 and OATP1A2 Facilitate the Renal Accumulation of Ochratoxin A. Pharmaceutics. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics17111474 2025. PMID: 41304811
  7. Mahadeo A, Bammler TK, MacDonald J, Zheng AR, Yeung CK, Himmelfarb J & Kelly EJ*. Pervasive food contaminant ochratoxin-A induces energy crisis: Mitochondrial dysfunction in human primary proximal tubule cells. Toxicology Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxrep.2025.102169  2025. PMID: 41341619
  8. Jones-Isaac K, Yeung CK, Bain J, Lidberg K, Yang J, Wang L, MacDonald J, Bammler T, Thummel KE, Corn M, Ruiz MV, Countryman S, Koenig P, Mann HH, Himmelfarb J & Kelly EJ*. Effect of calcium oxalate microcrystals on kidney proximal tubule epithelial cell gene expression in microgravity. npj Microgravity. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-025-00543-3 2025. PMID: 41381544
  9. Wang K, Tsang YP, Thummel KE, Kelly EJ, Mao Q & Unadkat JD. Effect of proinflammatory cytokines on intestinal drug transporters in human enteroid monolayers. Drug Metabolism and Disposition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dmd.2025.100208 2025. PMID: 41418738

Nina Isoherranen

Accepting Students to Lab: Yes

Education

  • PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry
  • Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, University of Helsinki

Research Interests

  • Metabolism, disposition and biological effects of Vitamin A and Retinoic acid
  • Drug disposition and drug safety during pregnancy
  • Pharmacokinetic modeling and molecular mechanisms of drug-drug interactions

Courses Taught

  • PCEUT532
  • PCEUT506
  • PCEUT502

Biography

Dr. Isoherranen received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and her master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry in 1998 from the University of Helsinki, Finland. She obtained a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2003 and continued her training as a post-doctoral fellow with Ken Thummel at the University of Washington. She joined the Department of Pharmaceutics as an Acting Assistant Professor on November 2004.

Dr Isoherranen’s main research interests relate to vitamin A disposition, pharmacokinetic modeling and drug-drug interactions. Her research program includes studies of the role of CYP26 and ALDH1A enzymes in Vitamin A homeostasis, alterations in vitamin A metabolome in obesity and related comorbidities and characterization of how drug and vitamin metabolism change during pregnancy. She has also active research ongoing in the area of pharmacokinetic modeling and PBPK model development relating to predictions of complex drug-drug and disease-drug interactions, and in prediction of clearance changes in different physiological states.

Selected Publications

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/term=Isoherranen+N&sort=date&size=20