Uche Maduka successfully passed his Ph.D. examination on Tuesday, July 16, 2013. His thesis title was "Elucidating Mechanisms by which Substance P in the RVM Contributes to the Maintenance of Pain following Inflammatory Injury". Members of his thesis committee were chair, Donna Hammond from the Departments of Anesthesia and Pharmacology; D.P. Mohapatra and Yuriy Usachev, Departments of Pharmacology and Anesthesia; Kathleen Sluka, Department of Physical Therapy; and Andrew Russo from the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.

Dr. Maduka's research focused on investigating the pro-nociceptive role of substance P in the rostral ventromedial medulla following peripheral inflammatory injury. He received his B.A. in Biotechnology with a minor in Chemistry at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA and began in the Pharmacology Ph.D. Program at Iowa in 2007. During research in Dr. Hammond’s laboratory, Dr. Maduka received a National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award.

His plans in the coming months will be to attend medical school at the University of Iowa, with the long term goal of combining his research and clinical experience to start his research program focused on clinically relevant projects.

Congratulations to Dr. Maduka!