Dr. John Hepler
Dr. John R. Hepler is a Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology within the Emory University School of Medicine. His research interests have focused on understanding intracellular communication (cell signaling) and how receptors, G proteins and RGS proteins work together to regulate cell and organ pathophysiology. His early research helped to define how receptors mobilize the important (and novel at the time) second messengers InsP3 and calcium, and he participated in the original discovery and characterization of the class of G proteins (Gq family) that link receptors to activation of phospholipase C and InsP3 formation, and their regulation by RGS proteins. His research interests at Emory have focused on understanding how neurotransmitter and hormone receptors link to G proteins and RGS proteins to regulate cell and organ pathophysiology. Current research focuses on identifying cellular/molecular roles for RGS proteins, their genetic variants, and their binding partners in the regulation of synaptic plasticity linked to learning and memory, brain reward/addictive behaviors, and neuroprotective roles following seizure-induced neuronal injury. Recent studies also examine roles for RGS proteins in kidney physiology and chronic kidney disease.
Dr. Hepler received his B.A. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He carried out his thesis research with Dr. T. Kendall before moving to the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas TX as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Alfred G. Gilman. Dr. Hepler joined the faculty at Emory in the fall of 1996. Besides his research, Dr. Hepler has a long-standing commitment to graduate education and actively teaches and leads in the Neuroscience, Pharmacology (MSP), and Biochemistry and Cell Biology (BCDB) Programs. He received a Teaching Excellence Award in 2016. He has served as Director of Graduate Studies for MSP, and currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the Neuroscience Graduate program.
Dr. Hepler is a member of the national professional societies ASPET, AAAS and ASBMB. He has served on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and also Molecular Pharmacology, where he currently serves as Associate Editor and previously as Deputy Editor. He was elected and served previously as Secretary/Treasurer and currently later as Chair-elect of the Molecular Pharmacology Division of ASPET. He received the PhRMA New Investigator Award in 1997 and was elected as a Fellow of AAAS (FAAAS) in 2014 and as Fellow of ASPET (FASPET) in 2024. To date, he is author/co-author on over 110 publications, served on numerous federal, private and academic advisory review boards, and has given dozens of invited lectures nationally and internationally.