John Partilla

Background

John S. Partilla received his B. A. in Chemistry from Wilkes University in 1974.  In 1974 John joined the laboratory of Dr. Robert Gregerman at the National Institute on Aging, where from 1974 to 1988 he studied the effects of aging on GPCRs in rat liver and human and rat adipose tissue using radioligand-based methodologies.  In 1988, John joined the National Institute on Drug Abuse where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Elizabeth Dax to establish methods for the HPLC-EC detection of biogenic amines in rat and human tissue and plasma.  From 1991 to 2011, John worked in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Rothman to develop radioligand-based in vitro uptake and release assays for the biogenic amine transporters.  These assays were then used to identify the transporter interaction of over 1,500 compounds.  Since 2012, John has been working in the Designer Drug Research Unit, NIDA IRP, under the leadership of Dr. Michael Baumann, to describe the interaction of new psychoactive substances at the biogenic amine transporters as a part of NIDAs Designer Drug Initiative.