Jane Alcorn

Biography

Dr. Alcorn is a member of the Drug Discovery and Development Research Group. Her teaching responsibilites include Basic and Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Xenobiotic Metabolism in both the undergraduate and graduate Pharmacy programs. She is also involved on the committee with American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics, Society of Toxicology of Canada, Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada, Membership in the CIHR Consortium on Drug and Environmental Safety, Chair, Animal Research Ethics Board of the University of Saskatchewan

Research Interest

Dr. Alcorn’s research interests encompass two principal areas. The first area involves investigations into the determinants of neonatal exposure risk when breastfeeding mothers require medications. Her laboratory focuses on the developmental maturation of drug elimination mechanisms and the elaboration of predictive models of drug elimination for a priori assessments of drug elimination capacity in the neonate. Research in the laboratory has moved towards investigations into drug-nutrient transporter interactions in the nursing mother-neonate dyad and the consequent outcomes of such interactions on breast milk nutrient composition and biochemical/ physiological development of the nursing neonate. Dr. Alcorn’s second principal area of research involves investigations into the health benefits of flaxseed lignans and their underlying mechanism(s) of action. Specifically, this laboratory evaluates lignan pharmacokinetics and conducts investigations into the pharmacological mechanisms through which lignans affect cholesterol and glucose homeostasis. Dr. Alcorn’s research utilizes a variety of pharmaceutical analysis, molecular biology and biochemical methods as well as cell culture systems and animal models in attempts to generate new understandings in these areas of investigation.