Anil D'mello PhD

Dr. D’mello received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.Pharm from the University of Bombay.  He teaches Pharmacokinetics in the Undergraduate, Professional and Graduate programs. He is the recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Outstanding Teacher of the Year award.  Dr D’mello serves on review panels of the NIH R15 and SBIR/STTR programs. He has served as primary supervisor to 11 Ph.D. students and 3 M.S. students.

Our research focuses on two different areas. We are interested in the effects of low protein diet during pregnancy and lactation on glucose and lipid homeostasis in the adult offspring. We have discovered that perinatal low protein diet in rats alters triglyceride content in the livers of the adult offspring. Current studies are using gene expression, western blot, and enzyme kinetic techniques to determine if the alteration in lipid triglyceride content is due to changes in pathways of lipid synthesis and utilization. Work in this area has been supported by multiple R15 grants from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development.

More recently the laboratory has revived an earlier interest in encapsulating enzymes into microcapsules. Using the spray drying technique, we have encapsulated phenylalanine ammonia lyase into ethylcellulose microcapsules. The encapsulated enzyme is functional and breaks down phenylalanine into trans cinnamic acid. We are using novel formulation strategies to enhance the efficiency of encapsulation of the enzyme into microcapsules and maximize the functional activity of the encapsulated enzyme within the core of the microcapsule. The system will be utilized for the treatment of phenylketonuria, an inborn error of metabolism characterized by the absence of physiologic systems to metabolize phenylalanine and the resultant accumulation of toxic plasma and brain levels of phenylalanine.