Cory Theberge and Daniel Brazeau share expertise at USM lecture series

Cory Theberge, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and Daniel Brazeau, Ph.D., director of genomics, analytics and proteomics and associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, both of the College of Pharmacy, contributed to the 2014 University of Southern Maine Southworth Planetarium Science Lecture Series by presenting on topics of their own expertise.

Theberge presented a public seminar at USM on March 20, 2014. He spoke on “The Fate of Pharmacologically Active Chemicals in the Environment.”  Theberge conducts research in medicinal chemistry and veterinary pharmacy and is interested in the long-term effects of exposure to environmental chemical residues from pharmaceuticals and personal-care products.

He is a native of Harpswell, Maine and attended Bates College before graduate study at the University of New Hampshire, where he received a master’s degree in Chemistry.  After five years as a medicinal chemist at Merck and Co. he returned to the University of New Hampshire where he completed his doctorate through the Merck Doctoral Study Program.  Theberge continued at Merck and Co. until moving back to Maine in 2009.

Daniel Brazeau presented a public seminar at USM on April 17, 2014.  He spoke on "The Genomics Revolution and Personalized Medicine - the Science and the Hype."  Brazeau offered a realistic understanding of the roles that such factors as environmental issues and human genetics play in the effectiveness of drugs on individuals.

Brazeau received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from the University of Toledo and earned his doctorate in Biological Sciences (1989) from the University at Buffalo.  After completing postdoctoral training in population genetics at the University of Houston, he was a research assistant professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Florida and director of the University of Florida’s Genetic Analysis Laboratory in the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Biotechnology.  Brazeau teaches courses in molecular genetics methodologies and a course in pharmacogenomics, which is a requirement for graduate and pharmacy professional students.