HEALTHCARE NEWSMAKERS

Joshua Rokach, Ph.D

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA — Joshua Rokach, Ph.D, Florida Tech chemistry professor and director of the university’s Claude Pepper Institute for Aging and Therapeutic Research, has been awarded a two-year research grant of $850,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The grant, from the National Heart Lung Blood Institute, will allow Dr. Rokach to continue his studies on chronic inflammatory diseases and, especially on the design and synthesis of antagonists to the 5-oxo-ETE receptor. Such antagonists may find a use as anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic drugs.

Dr. Rokach has received worldwide recognition for the first syntheses of major inflammatory mediators such as leukotrienes and lipoxins, which are responsible for allergies of the lung and nose. The availability of these synthetic mediators has opened the field to medical research in the areas of allergy and inflammation.

Among his accomplishments, Dr. Rokach was responsible for the development of the drug “Singulair,”a leukotriene-D4 antagonist, used by millions of allergy sufferers for the relief of asthma and rhinitis symptoms.

Dr. Rokach’s main research interest is the use of bioorganic and synthetic chemistry to advance the understanding of biochemical and biological systems. The total syntheses of biologically important molecules are performed, and from these molecules, synthetic probes are designed to identify and isolate enzymes and receptors that have escaped isolation by the most commonly used techniques. Click here for a list of Dr. Rokach's recent and noteworthy publications.

About Florida Institute of Technology
Founded at the dawn of the Space Race 50 years ago, Florida Tech is the only independent, technological university in the Southeast. With approximately 8,000 students enrolled on main campus, extended campuses and online, Florida Tech has been named a Barron’s Guide “Best Buy” in College Education, listed among  America’s best colleges in U.S. News & World Report, and ranked in 2009 as one of the  nation’s top 18 engineering technical institutes by the Fiske Guide to Colleges.

The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs. Fields of study include science, engineering, aeronautics, business, humanities, mathematics, psychology, communication and education. Additional information is available online at www.fit.edu.

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