Elizabeth Ambrose, PhD

The Ambrose laboratory’s research program focuses on CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high explosive) agent mitigation, particularly Bacillus anthracis (the causative agent of anthrax), the ricin toxin, and organophosphate nerve gases such as sarin, soman, and VX. Our goals include the design and optimization of small-molecule anthrax toxin lethal factor (LF) inhibitors, and ricin toxin A (RTA) inhibitors, to be used as emergency therapeutics in the event of bioterror attacks, and engineering enzyme active sites to rapidly and effectively hydrolyze fast-acting nerve agents. We are a full-spectrum early- to mid-stage drug discovery laboratory encompassing high-throughput and fragment screening, lead optimization, structure-based design, cell-based assays, and modeling. We have particular expertise in Biosafety Level (BSL)-2 and -3 and Select Agent safety and security protocols. Professor Ambrose also has research and teaching interests in CNS-targeted drug design and optimization, focusing on psychiatric pharmacy and neuropharmacology.

American Chemical Society Hewlett-Packard Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, 2011
Professor of the Semester, 2015, PharmD Class of 2017 (Twin Cities)
Professor of the Semester, 2015, PharmD Class of 2017 (Duluth)
Professor of the Year, 2013, PharmD Class of 2015 (Twin Cities)
Professor of the Semester, Spring 2013, PharmD Class of 2015 (Duluth)
Professor of the Year, 2012, PharmD Class of 2014 (Twin Cities)
Professor of the Semester, Spring 2012, PharmD Class of 2014 (Duluth)
Professor of the Semester, Spring 2011, PharmD Class of 2013 (Twin Cities)
Professor of the Semester, Spring 2011, PharmD Class of 2013 (Duluth)
Professor of the Year, 2010, PharmD Class of 2012 (Twin Cities)
Professor of the Semester, Spring 2010, PharmD Class of 2012 (Duluth)

Fellow of the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute for Advanced Computational Research (MSI)

• Biological and Chemical Warfare Agent Mitigation
• BSL-2, BSL-3 and Select Agent Research
• Homeland Security
• High-Throughput and Fragment Screening, Lead Optimization
• Psychiatric Pharmacy and Neuropharmacology

PubMed

1.Guo, Z.; Sevrioukova, I. F.; Denisov, I. G.; Zhang, X.; Chiu, T. L.; Thomas, D. G.; Hanse, E. A.; Cuellar, R. A. D.; Grinkova, Y. V.; Langenfeld, V. W.; Swedien, D. S.; Stamschror, J. D.; Alvarez, J.; Luna, F.; Galvan, A.; Bae, Y. K.; Wulfkuhle, J. D.; Gallagher, R. I.; Petricoin, E. F. R.; Norris, B.; Flory, C. M.; Schumacher, R. J.; O'Sullivan, M. G.; Cao, Q.; Chu, H.; Lipscomb, J. D.; Atkins, W. M.; Gupta, K.; Kelekar, A.; Blair, I. A.; Capdevila, J. H.; Falck, J. R.; Sligar, S. G.; Poulos, T. L.; Georg, G. I.; Ambrose, E.; Potter, D. A. Heme binding biguanides target cytochrome P450-dependent cancer cell mitochondria. Cell Chem. Biol. 2017, 24, 1314.

2.Pathak, K. V.; Chiu, T. L.; Amin, E. A.; Turesky, R. J. Methemoglobin Formation and Characterization of hemoglobin adducts of carcinogenic aromatic amines and heterocyclic aromatic amines. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2016, 29, 255-69.

3.Dosa, P. I.; Amin, E. A. Tactical approaches to interconverting GPCR agonists and antagonists. J. Med. Chem. 2016, 59, 810-840.

4.Zhang, X.; Amin, E. A. Highly predictive support vector machine (SVM) models for anthrax toxin lethal factor (LF) inhibitors. J. Mol. Graph. Model. 2016, 63, 22-28.

5.Kurbanov, E. K.; Chiu, T. L.; Solberg, J.; Francis, S.; Maize, K. M.; Fernandez, J.; Johnson, R. L.; Hawkinson, J. E.; Walters, M. A.; Finzel, B. C.; Amin, E. A. Probing the S2 ' Subsite of the anthrax toxin lethal factor using novel N-alkylated hydroxamates. J. Med. Chem. 2015, 58, 8723-8733.