Office of the Dean

NOTE: Dean Surratt is fully engaged with his administrative duties and does not maintain an active research lab at this time.

Dr. Surratt's Ph.D. work helped clarify the mechanism of tRNA processing by RNaseP and its ribozyme component M1 RNA.  As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, he studied bacterial RNA polymerase MOA and discovered a novel transcriptional proofeading activity.  At the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIH, he participated in cloning some of the first opiate and psychostimulant receptor cDNAs and created some of the first site-directed mutants.  He continued opioid receptor research as well as studies on the dopamine transporter, the brain’s “cocaine receptor”, as a faculty member the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and then at Duquesne University.  His virtual (computational) and in vitro pharmacologic work with the dopamine and serotonin transporters has focused on discovering novel antipsychostimulant, antidepressant and anxiolytic medications.  

Areas of responsibility include:

• Perform administrative staff functions and activities for the Dean
• Plan and manage the daily business for the Dean's office
• Serve as a liaison with internal leadership/adminstrators, as well as external offices/clients for the Dean's office
• Execution of special projects