School of Pharmacy

Walter Wolf, PhD

Research Interest

Prof. Wolf's research interests are focused on methods that allow the noninvasive study of drug biodistribution, targeting and metabolism, and correlation of such measurements with clinical response, especially in the treatment of cancer. That such a correlation was possible was documented in 1977, for the first time, in studies of 18F-5-flourouracil, first in tumored animals and then in humans. Prof. Wolf then undertook the first human studies of flourinated drugs using 19F-NMR as the noninvasive method of measurement of flouropyrimidines. The Pharmacokinetic Imaging Program at USC (PKIP), entails a comprehensive, systems-approach to the study of drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics with special emphasis on noninvasive techniques. Methods that have been shown to predict and assess clinical response include Dynamic-contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and 19F-MRS.

Prof. Wolf was instrumental in transforming the USC School of Pharmacy into a strongly research-oriented academic unit, in shifting the professional direction towards clinical pharmacy/patient care, and in creating, with the establishment (1968) of the Radiopharmacy Program, the concept of Pharmaceutical post-professional specialties. His current interests are to implement a greater integration of the health professions (Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Biokinesiology and Occupational Therapy) into the unifying paradigm of the Academic Health Centers.

Biography

Prof. Wolf received his MSc in 1952 from the University of the Republic (Montevideo, Uruguay) and his PhD from the University of Paris (France) in 1956. He was appointed as a Research Scientist to the CNRS in 1955, Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Universidad de Concepcion, Chile, 1956-1958, and held research appointments at McGill University (Canada) and Amherst College (1958-1959) before joining the Department of Chemistry at USC in 1959. Prof. Wolf joined the School of Pharmacy in 1962, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1965, to Professor in 1970 and to Distinguished Professor in 1998. He served as Chairman of the Department of Biomedicinal Chemistry from 1968-1972, and then as the Director of the Radiopharmacy Program, 1970-1990. He served as President of the Faculty Senate at USC 1990-1991. Currently, he is Chair of the Provost's Biomedical Imaging Science Initiative.

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Research Support

1) Phase I Study of the Intratumoral Metabolism of Gemcitabine with 19F Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Eli Lilly and Co.

2) Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) Study of the Effect of Gleevec on Tumor Vascularity and on Gemcitabine Uptake Using Noninvasive MRI/MRS (BUS 228). Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

Selected Projects/Publications

Wolf W. Imaging can be much more than pretty pictures. Pharm Res[1995]12:1821-1822.

Wolf W, Waluch V, Presant CA. Noninvasive 19F-NMRS of 5-fluorouracil in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies. NMR Biomed[1998]11:380-387.

Wolf W, Presant CA, Waluch V. 19F-MRS studies of fluorinated drugs in humans. Adv Drug Deliv Rev[2000]41:55-74.

Wolf W. A systems approach to drug development and to drug therapy. Pharm Res[2003]20:1-2.

Port RE, Wolf W. Noninvasive methods to study drug distribution. Invest New Drugs[2003]21:157-168.

Wolf W, Present CA. Tumor based pharmacokinetics of drugs has greater significance for anticancer drugs than does blood-based pharmacolkinetics. Clin Pharmacol Ther[2004]76:508.