The University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series continues Thursday, September 10, 2026, at 6 p.m. with the program titled “Natural Products That Alter Sensory Perception and Their Use to Treat Chronic Pain”. Dr. Kevin J. Tidgewell, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kentucky, will be the speaker.
This free lecture will be presented in person at the UF Whitney Laboratory Lohman Auditorium, 9505 Ocean Shore Boulevard, in St. Augustine. Those interested also have the option of registering to watch via Zoom live the night of the lecture.
Register to watch online: https://ufl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__Gge6bhSRIC-0hPOPlDINA
The Tidgewell lab works at the edges between natural products discovery, synthetic medicinal chemistry development, and neuroscience assay design. His talk will explore projects on marine and terrestrial natural products for validation of traditional phytomedicines from Cameroon, the development of marine natural products and their analogs as chemical tools to better understand neuronal function/dysfunction in the context of neuropathic pain, and the development of a calcium imaging based assay to evaluate compounds for analgesic potential.
Dr. Kevin Tidgewell has worked in the field of medicinal and natural products chemistry for over 20 years. During his PhD he worked on the plant hallucinogen and kappa opioid receptor agonist salvinorin A in the lab of Dr. Thomas Prisinzano. He published 17 papers from his graduate work with 3 being first author publications focused on synthesis and development of analogs as analgesics and the key discovery being the design of a mu opioid agonist analgesic with reduced tolerance. He conducted Post-Doctoral research with Dr. Bill Gerwick at UCSD/Scripps Institution of Oceanography for two years and an additional two years at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama working on drug discovery from the ocean while still being mentored remotely by Gerwick. His Post-doctoral work resulted in 4 publications and a patent related to an anti-cancer compound he isolated and determined the structure of called Apratoxin F.
Dr. Tidgewell began his independent career in July 2012 at Duquesne University in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences focused on the discovery of compounds from the ocean which modulate neuronal function and moved to the University of Kentucky department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in July 2023. The lab does natural products discovery, medicinal chemistry total synthesis, and pharmacological screening via calcium imaging to discover, design and develop novel compounds that modulate neuronal function. The lab has access to the equipment, expertise and facilities of the University of Kentucky Center for Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation and is well positioned to conduct synthetic and translational medicinal chemistry.