Michael B. Bolger, Ph.D.

Dr. Bolger obtained a B.A. in Biology and Chemistry with a minor in psychology from the University of California at San Diego in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from UC San Francisco in 1978. During 1978-1980 he was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in pharmacology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and joined the faculty of the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy in 1980 where he currently holds the title of Associate Professor. During this period he developed an interest in computational aspects of drug design and drug development. As a faculty member at USC School of Pharmacy, Dr. Bolger has been supported by several NIH basic science research grants and has published over 50 peer-reviewed publications. From 1989-1991 he served as a US Food and Drug Administration National Science Advisor and in 1989 was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Synbiotics Inc. In 1996, he was elected to the rank of AAAS Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is currently a member of the editorial board of Pharmaceutical Research and has served as a reviewer for numerous scientific publications.

From 1987-1993, following the application for patents regarding the chemistry and use of novel neuroactive steroids for treatment of anxiety, epilepsy, and sleep disorders, Dr. Bolger co-founded and served as Director of Medicinal Chemistry at CoCensys Inc., Irvine CA. Drug candidates emanating from seven of Dr. Bolger's patents are currently in Phase I and II clinical trials for petite mal epilepsy, sleep disorders, and migrane.

At USC School of Pharmacy, Dr. Bolger has pioneered the use of computer-based problem solving in a Pharmaceutical Curriculum. In 1992 he was awarded the Innovations in Teaching prize from the American Association for Colleges of Pharmacy, for his development of "Cyber Patient". This program is a multimedia pharmacokinetic simulation program for use in a problem-solving curriculum and has been distributed free of charge to hundreds of sites around the world.

In 1998, Dr. Bolger was on sabbatical at Simulations Plus, Inc. (Lancaster, CA) and directed a team of scientist / programmers in the development of two software programs for estimation of biopharmaceutical properties. These two programs "QMPRPlusÔ" and "GastroPlusÔ" are designed to estimate human effective permeability from 2D molecular structures and to estimate fraction of dose absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract respectively. These programs are currently in use in the Pharmaceutical Industry to facilitate drug discovery and drug development. Dr. Bolger is currently Director of Life Sciences at Simulations Plus, Inc.

You can E-mail me at: bolger@usc.edu