Georg Wondrak, PhD
Assistant Professor
Pharmacology & Toxicology
Scenes of Tucson’s seemingly countless bright sunny days are framed by the window of Georg Wondrak’s laboratory located at the Arizona Cancer Center.
“The omnipresent sun in Tucson really fuels my passion for research on molecular mechanisms of skin photo-damage,” Wondrak states while he examines human melanoma cells under the microscope.
After becoming a new assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy in Fall 2005, Wondrak aggressively aims at drug discovery for chemoprevention and chemotherapy of skin cancer. He is developing novel agents for skin sun protection called "quenchers of photo-excited states" that work very differently from regular sunscreens. He is also in the process of designing experimental drugs that kill melanoma cells by induction of programmed cell death.
In addition to his research pursuits, Wondrak enjoys teaching and takes pleasure in interacting with students. He greatly enjoys the new insights that teaching provides, stating “one must understand the material fully in order to successfully transmit it to students.”
The University of Arizona is an extraordinary place to pursue his research, says Wondrak, who earned a PhD in biotechnology in Berlin, Germany. He is also a member of the Arizona Cancer Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Program and expects interdisciplinary interactions on campus with researchers in the Department of Chemistry, the College of Pharmacy and the Bio5 Institute.