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Who is David Pollock?
From University to Drug Company and Back Again
David Pollock was born in
Indianapolis, IN on September 29, 1955 and spent his formative years in
the mid-sized town of Evansville, IN. He enjoyed many subjects in school,
including biology and chemistry, but he also loved music, drama, and
sports. His aptitude in math and science combined with the efforts of a
few inspired teachers made him want to learn more. The “quest for
knowledge,” as his high school chemistry teacher would say, is a noble
pursuit. Also, David’s work as an athletic trainer in high school not
only allowed him to participate in sports indirectly but also fueled his
interest in understanding how our bodies work.
David stayed
in his hometown and went to college at the University of Evansville. He
received a scholarship to continue as an athletic trainer for the college
football, basketball, and baseball teams. His first two years in college
as a biology major were rather uneventful, as he took the usual array of
introductory classes. However, it was in his junior year when he took an
advanced human physiology class that he experienced a “revelation.” With
the help of a truly inspired teacher, Dr. Eugene Schroeder, David
discovered that physiology was the subject that really got him excited.
This experience made him want to learn more. He knew that in order to
understand more about how the body works, he would have to continue his
studies in graduate school. However, he first had to take time to get
married to another biology major, Jennifer Pollock.
David enrolled
in the Ph.D. program at the University of Cincinnati and graduated with a
degree in physiology in 1983. He then went to the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the
Department of Physiology. Although when he started graduate school he
thought he would end up teaching college, Dr. Pollock decided that a career
as an independent researcher was what he truly wanted.
Using Physiology to Discover New
Drugs
Dr. Pollock’s
first job opportunity came in 1988 when he went to work at a research
institute that was just being established by several faculty in the
physiology department at Harvard Medical School in Boston. The institute
struggled financially, and so when a job offer came along to work in the
Drug Discovery Division at Abbott Laboratories a year and a half later, he
took it. He got the job through a friend he had met while attending a
meeting of the American Physiological Society. Working in Drug Discovery was
quite exciting, and Dr. Pollock was able to apply his abilities as a
physiologist to help develop several potential new drugs, including
endothelin antagonists that should soon be approved for treatment of heart
failure and prostate cancer.
Back to School
Just when it
seemed that he had found his niche, Dr. Pollock got to the point where his
original desire to work as a physiologist at a university and teach as well
as do research began to grow again. In 1995, he accepted a faculty position
in the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia. In some
ways, it was like starting his career over, but the excitement of a challenging new
position was wonderful. He has been able to pursue some research questions
that he could not pursue at a drug company. More importantly, however, he
is able to work with students and other trainees and pass his excitement on
to them. What makes it especially enjoyable is that he gets to work closely
with his wife, now Dr. Jennifer Pollock, on many research and educational
activities.
Free Time
David spends most of his free time with his three children, Luke, Sam, and
Michaela. They keep him busy with baseball, soccer, scouts, and other
activities. He does manage to find a little time for himself for playing on
the church softball team, intramural basketball, and the occasional round of
golf.
Recent Publications
1. Sullivan JC, Wang B, Boesen EI, D'Angelo G, Pollock JS, Pollock
DM. Novel use
of ultrasound to examine regional blood flow in the mouse kidney.
Am J Physiol
Renal Physiol. 297(1):F228-F235, 2009.
2. Nakano D, Pollock DM. Contribution of endothelin A receptors
in endothelin
1-dependent natriuresis in female rats.
Hypertension 53(2):324-330, 2009.
3. Schneider MP, Inscho EW, Pollock DM. Attenuated
vasoconstrictor responses to
endothelin in afferent arterioles during a high-salt diet.
Am J Physiol Renal
Physiol 292(4):F1208-F1214, 2007.
4. Schneider MP, Boesen EI, Pollock DM. Contrasting actions of
endothelin ET(A)
and ET(B) receptors in cardiovascular disease.
Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol 47:731-759, 2007.
5. Pollock DM, Pollock JS. Evidence for endothelin involvement in the response to high salt.
Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. 281: F144-F150, 2001.
6. Treiber FA, Jackson RW, Davis H, Pollock JS, Kapuku G, Mensah GA,
Pollock DM.
Racial differences in endothelin-1 at rest and in response to acute
stress in
adolescent males.
Hypertension 35(3):722-725, 2000.
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