University Of Southern Nevada

Dr. Rajan Radhakrishnan received his bachelor degree in chemistry (BSc., 1980) and bachelors degree in pharmacy (BPharm., 1985) from the University of Kerala, India. He worked as an industrial pharmacist in India for 3 years and started his graduate studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, earning an MSc. in pharmacology in 1989. He continued his graduate studies in the area of cardiovascular pharmacology at the National University of Singapore and received his PhD in 1996. After completing his graduate studies, Dr. Radhakrishnan taught pharmacology at the University of Malaya, Malaysia in the School of Pharmacy. He then moved to the United Arab Emirates, working for the Ministry of Health as a scientist at their natural product research facility in Abu Dhabi for 5 years.

Dr. Radhakrishnan came to the United States in 2002 to do a postdoctoral fellowship in pain neurobiology at the University of Iowa with Dr. Kathleen Sluka. Following the postdoctoral fellowship, he accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Western University of Health Sciences in 2005. During his time at the Western University he established a laboratory to study pain neurobiology, and successfully mentored a graduate (MS) student. Dr. Radhakrishnan was awarded an AACP-NIP grant during his first year of service at Western. His current research focus is on pain neurobiology, specifically looking at the role of ion channels (ASIC, TRPV, P2X) in pain transduction in inflammatory and ischemic conditions. Other areas of research interest include common CNS sites involved in pain and cardiovascular control, bioactivity and toxicity of natural products, and drug interaction between botanicals and conventional drugs.

Dr. Radhakrishnan has published 27 peer-reviewed articles, 3 book chapters, and several abstracts in the area of cardiovascular pharmacology, pain neurobiology and natural products. He serves as the North America regional editor for Inflammopharmacology, and as editorial board member for Phytomedicine and Phytotherapy Research. He is also in the reviewers’ panel for 14 scientific journals including Journal of pain, Brain Research and American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. His academic interest is in optimizing pharmacology course content for pharmacy students. He spends his spare time with his wife and two children, and playing with HTML. Dr. Radhakrishnan has been serving University of Southern Nevada-Utah Campus as an Associate professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences since June 2007.  Dr. Radhakrishnan has been recently appointed as an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah Medical School.