Andrew Coop, Ph.D.

Andrew Coop, Ph.D., received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in chemistry from the University of Oxford, UK, and his Ph.D. on the topic of the chemistry of buprenorphine at the University of Bristol, UK, with Dr. J. W. Lewis. Andy was subsequently awarded a Fogarty Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health with Dr. K. C. Rice in 1995. He was appointed to his current position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in 1999. Dr. Coop has received funding from NIDA in the three areas of opioids, cocaine, and also gamma-hydroxybutyrate, all concerned with the design and development of novel tools to allow pharmacological study of the systems involved in the abuse of these drugs. He has published numerous manuscripts in both chemistry and pharmacology journals and received a patent in 2002 for his discovery of a method allowing the direct conversion of thebaine to the minor opium alkaloid oripavine. He serves on the editorial board of Current Medicinal Chemistry - CNS Agents and has served on study sections for the NIH RCMI program. In addition, Dr. Coop is active in the College as the Biological Coordinator of the Drug Evaluation Committee and is a member of the Electronic Communications Committee.