JoEllyn McMillan, PhD

• 1987, PhD, Texas A&M University, College Station
• 1982, B.A. Biology and Chemistry, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

Dr. McMillan's role in the College of Public Health is in the area of graduate education. She serves as chair of the graduate program committee for the Environmental Health Occupational Health and Toxicology (EHOHT) program in the Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health. She directs a basic toxicology course for both online and campus-based students in the Masters of Public Health Program. She also directs advanced toxicology courses for students in the Environmental Health Occupational Health and Toxicology Doctoral Program in the Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health. 
 
Her primary role in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience is in education. In this capacity she develops novel educational methods to assist students in learning basic pharmacological concepts for students in Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions programs. She also facilitates guided discussions for graduate students in Neuroscience to develop skills to critically evaluate and interpret the literature and to use these skills to formulate new approaches in their scientific investigations. 
 
Her research interests have been in the fields of toxicology and development of long-acting drugs for chronic infectious disease such as human immunodeficiency virus. She has used primary liver cells and whole animal rodent models to study mechanisms of liver toxicity of drugs and environmental chemicals such as acetaminophen and trichloroethylene. She has collaborated with Pharmacology, UNMC and national investigators with the goal of developing nanoformulations of antiretroviral drugs to provide extended and targeted therapeutic drug concentrations. She has worked with cell culture and animal model systems to understand the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of long-acting prodrug nanoformulations of existing antiretroviral drugs.  

She has authored and co-authored over 100 publications related to her research interests. 

• Deodhar S, Sillman B, Bade AN, Avedissian SN, Podany AT, McMillan JM, Gautam N, Hanson B, Dyavar Shetty BL, Szlachetka A, Johnston M, Thurman M, Munt DJ, Dash AK, Markovic M, Dahan A, Alnouti Y, Yazdi A, Kevadiya BD, Byrareddy SN, Cohen SM, Edagwa B, Gendelman HE. Transformation of dolutegravir into an ultra-long-acting parenteral prodrug formulation. Nature Commun. 13:3226. 2022. PMID: 35680875 

• Cobb DA, Smith N, Deodhar S, Bade AN, Gautam N, Shetty BLD, McMillan J, Alnouti Y, Cohen SM, Gendelman HE, Edagwa B. Transformation of tenofovir into stable ProTide nanocrystals with long-acting pharmacokinetic profiles. Nature Commun. 12:5458. 2021. PMID: 34531390 

• Bade AN, McMillan JM, Liu Y, Edagwa B, Gendelman HE. Dolutegravir Inhibition of Matrix Metalloproteinases Affects Mouse Neurodevelopment. Mol. Neurobiol. 58:5703-5721. 2021. doi: 10.1007/s12035-021-02508-5. PMID: 34390469 

• Gautam N, McMillan JM, Kumar D, Bade AN, Pan Q, Kulkarni TA, Li W, Smith NA, Dyavar Shetty BL, Sillman B, Szlachetka A, Edagwa BJ, Gendelman HE, Alnouti Y. Lipophilic Nanocrystal Prodrug-Release Defines the Extended Pharmacokinetic Profiles of a Year-Long Cabotegravir. Nature Commun. 12:3453. 2021. PMID: 34103484 

• Dash PK, Alomar FA, Cox JL, McMillan J, Hackfort BT, Makarov E, Morsey B, Fox HS, Gendelman HE, Gorantla S, Bidasee KR. A Link Between Methylglyoxal and Heart Failure During HIV-1 Infection. Front. Cardiovasc. Med. 8:792180. 2021. PMID: 34970611 

• Cobb DA, Smith NA, Edagwa BJ, McMillan JM. Long-acting approaches for delivery of antiretroviral drugs for prevention and treatment of HIV: a review of recent research. Expert Opin. Drug Deliv. 17: 1227-1238, 2020. PMID: 32552187

• Society of Toxicology
• Delta Omega Honor Society - Gamma Omicron Chapter