Daryl L. Davies, associate dean for undergraduate education and professor in the Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy, has been named the Timothy M. Chan Endowed Professor in Complementary Therapeutics, a five-year appointment, effective July 1, 2022.
As associate dean of undergraduate education, Davies has been the driving force behind the school’s burgeoning undergraduate program, which currently enrolls more than 350 students. He is also director of the master’s program in management of drug development in the Department of Regulatory and Quality Sciences and undergraduate faculty adviser for the Trojan Admission Pre-Pharmacy program. He is a mentor in the USC Science, Technology and Research (STAR) program—a cooperative venture in science education between the USC Health Sciences Campus and Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in East Los Angeles—after several years serving as the program’s director. He coordinates, teaches and oversees 21 novel undergraduate courses as well as three courses related to directed research. Moreover, he directs a shared minor in addiction science with Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Department of Population and Public Health Sciences.
A USC faculty member since 1999, Davies leads a research team at USC that is working to discover and develop novel therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and alcoholism. Considered a pioneer by his peers in the field of purinergic receptors and their role in central nervous system regulation of alcohol-induced changes in alcohol intake and signaling, he also is a lead faculty member in the USC Institute for Addiction Science.
A significant focus of his research is the development of pharmaceuticals and complementary herbal therapies. In the latter work, Davies is currently investigating the development of dihydromyricetin (DHM) including ways to increase bioavailability of DHM in animal and eventually human models. DHM is a nutritional supplement recognized for its broad range of pharmacological properties and benefits, including improving mitochondrial function following stress in the brain, muscle, and liver, and protecting against oxidative/metabolic stress. Notably, DHM has been reported to induce activity associated with liver regeneration, counteract ethanol intoxication withdrawal symptoms, including seizure threshold, and inhibit hepatic collagen deposition and the formation of fibrous nodules.
The professorship is named for Timothy M. Chan, who served as dean of the USC School of Pharmacy from 1995 to 2005 and published extensively on disorders of metabolic regulation in diabetes and obesity and under oxidative stress.
Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos noted that Davies is uniquely deserving of the Chan professorship due to his educational innovations combined with his research focus on complementary herbal therapies to advance human health.
“Dean Emeritus Chan’s generosity is an investment in faculty members such as Dr. Davies who lead the school in its efforts to advance health through excellence in pharmacy education, research and practice.”
-Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos