Positions
- Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Medicine
- Director, UAMS Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Studies
Contacts
- Phone: 501-686-5487
- Fax: 501-686-5521
- Email: mowens@uams.edu
- Administrative Assistant: Melinda Gunnell, 501-686-8032
Research Experience
The primary focus of the research career of S. Michael Owens, Ph.D., has been toward the development of antibody-based medications to treat the adverse health effects of drugs of abuse. He has been continuously funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse since 1986 and was a recipient of an National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Drug Abuse K02 Research Career Development Award for 10 years.
Research Interests
Owens’ research interests are in translational science, antibody-based medications, experimental therapeutics, and drug abuse. He has mentored 12 Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. students, five post-doctoral fellows, and a K08 clinician/scientist award and K25 award for faculty colleagues.
He has served on editorial boards, grant reviews, and advisory committees for various federal research agencies, and expert panels including the NIH Small Business Innovative Research Grants program, NIH, NIDA, the National Cancer Institute, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Technology, the National Academy of Science, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. From 2001 to 2002, he was the founding director of the Arkansas Biosciences Institute. He is a founder and chief scientific officer of InterveXion Therapeutic LLC, a pharmaceutical company based-on Owens’ monoclonal antibody and vaccine medications. Currently, he has seven patents and over 100 publications.
In recognition of his research and academic accomplishments at UAMS, he was awarded a Wilbur D. Mills Endowed Chair in Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention in 2000. For excellence in teaching and mentorship he received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award at UAMS in 2006. In 2012, he received the Born Distinguished Lectureship Award from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi in recognition of outstanding accomplishment in medicinal chemistry. In 2013, he was honored as the College of Medicine Dean’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar at UAMS.
Recent Publications
Stevens, MW, Tawney, RL, West, SM, Kight, AD, Henry, RL; Owens, SM, Gentry, WB. Preclinical Characterization of an Anti-Methamphetamine Monoclonal Antibody for Human Use. MAbs. 6:547-555, 2014. PMC3984342
White SJ, Hendrickson HP, Atchley, WT, Laurenzana EM, Gentry WB, Williams DK, Owens SM. A monoclonal antibody with dual specificity for (+)-methamphetamine and (+)-amphetamine reduces brain penetration of both drugs in pregnant rats and their litters. Drug Metab Dispos. 42:1-8, 2014. PMID: 24839971
Laurenzana, EM, Stevens, MW, Frank, JC, Hambuchen, M, Hendrickson, HP, White, SJ, Williams, DK, Owens, SM, Gentry, WB. Pharmacological Effects of Two Anti-Methamphetamine Monoclonal Antibodies; Supporting Data for Lead Candidate Selection for Clinical Development. Hum Vaccin Immunother 10(9), 2014.PMID: 25003991
Hambuchen, MD, Rüedi-Bettschen, D, Williams, DK, Hendrickson, HP, Owens, SM. Chronic treatment with an anti-methamphetamine monoclonal antibody reduces the duration of action of repeated (+)-methamphetamine challenges over a month period. Vaccine. 32(47), 6213-6219, 2014. NIHMS629547
Stevens, MW, Henry, RL, Owens, SM, Schultz, R, Gentry, WB. First human study of a chimeric anti-methamphetamine monoclonal antibody in healthy volunteer. MAbs. 6(6), 1649-1656, 2014.
Peterson, EC, Hambuchen, MD, Tawney, RL, Gunnell, MG, Cowell, JL, Lay, JO, Blough, BE, Carroll, FI, Owens, SM. A simple radiometric method for accurately quantitating epitope densities of hapten-protein conjugates with sulfhydryl linkages. Bioconjugate Chem. 25 (12): 2112−2115, 2014 PMC4275166.
Harris, AC, LeSage, MG, Shelley, D, Perry, JL, Pentel, PR, Owens, SM. The anti-(+)-methamphetamine monoclonal antibody mAb7F9 attenuates acute (+)-methamphetamine effects on intracranial self-stimulation in rats. PloS one. In press.
Milesi-Hallé, A, Hambuchen, MD, McMillan, DE, Owens, SM.The Pharmacokinetics of Methamphetamine Self-Administration in Male and Female Rats. Drug Alcohol Depend. In press.