Peter I. Dosa, PhD

Research in the Dosa laboratory focuses on the discovery of new therapeutics, with a strong emphasis on modifying existing drugs or natural products to enhance their pharmacological or pharmacokinetic properties. Our research is highly collaborative and we work with investigators both internal and external to the University of Minnesota to help incorporate drug discovery into their research programs. Several of our most advanced research programs include: (I) The development of KATP channel openers as a new class of therapeutics to treat glaucoma; (II) The synthesis of gut-restricted bile acid analogs designed to inhibit C. difficile spore germination; and (III) GPCR-focused drug discovery.

I came to UMN in 2009 from Arena Pharmaceuticals, where I worked as a medicinal chemist in the drug discovery group on projects focusing on GPCRs. During the nearly seven years I was at Arena, I worked on several projects that reached the clinic including Arena’s 5-HT2C agonist program, which resulted in the approved drug lorcaserin.

• Drug Discovery
• Prodrugs
• GPCRs
• Clostridium difficile
• Serotonin and dopamine receptors

PubMed

1. Pi, C. H.; Yu, G.; Dosa, P. I.; Hubel, A. Characterizing modes of action and interaction for multicomponent osmolyte solutions on Jurkat cells. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2019, 116, 631-643.
2. Gunaratne, G. S.; Yahya, N. A.; Dosa, P. I.; Marchant, J. S. Activation of host transient receptor potential (TRP) channels by praziquantel stereoisomers. PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. 2018, 12, e0006420.
3. Chan, J. D.; Cupit, P. M.; Gunaratne, G. S.; McCorvy, J. D.; Yang, Y.; Stoltz, K.; Webb, T. R.; Dosa, P. I.; Roth, B. L.; Abagyan, R.; Cunningham, C.; Marchant, J. S. The anthelmintic praziquantel is a human serotoninergic G-protein-coupled receptor ligand. Nat. Commun. 2017, 8, 1910.
4. Roy Chowdhury, U.; Rinkoski, T. A.; Bahler, C. K.; Millar, J. C.; Bertrand, J. A.; Holman, B. H.; Sherwood, J. M.; Overby, D. R.; Stoltz, K. L.; Dosa, P. I.; Fautsch, M. P. Effect of cromakalim prodrug 1 (CKLP1) on aqueous humor dynamics and feasibility of combination therapy with existing ocular hypotensive agents. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2017, 58, 5731-5742.
5. Stoltz, K. L.; Erickson, R.; Staley, C.; Weingarden, A. R.; Romens, E.; Steer, C. J.; Khoruts, A.; Sadowsky, M. J.; Dosa, P. I. Synthesis and biological evaluation of bile acid analogues inhibitory to Clostridium difficile spore germination. J. Med. Chem. 2017, 60, 3451-3471.