Rate My Professor Mhairi Nimick

Mhairi Nimick is an Assistant Research Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Professional Programmes at the University of Otago. Her research summary centers on cancer drug development, conducted in collaboration with Associate Professor Rhonda Rosengren's research group. This group focuses on identifying novel treatments for triple negative breast cancer and hormone refractory prostate cancer. They synthesize second-generation derivatives of curcumin in partnership with the Department of Chemistry and evaluate their efficacy in in vitro and in vivo models. Additional studies explore mechanisms of cancer cell translation and tumor targeting via nanomicellar drug delivery. The group's work is funded by grants from the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, Otago Medical Research Foundation, and University of Otago Research Grants.

Nimick has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications across pharmacology, toxicology, and related fields. Recent contributions include 'Pharmacological characterisation of erenumab, Aimovig, at two calcitonin gene-related peptide responsive receptors' in the British Journal of Pharmacology (2024, with M.L. Garelja et al.), 'Investigating the contribution of major drug-metabolising enzymes to possum-specific fertility control' in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2023, with R.R. Chand et al.), and conference proceedings on ubrogepant and atogepant antagonism at calcitonin family receptors in Headache (2024, with D. Hay et al.). Other key works encompass 'Terpenoids From Cannabis Do Not Mediate an Entourage Effect by Acting at Cannabinoid Receptors' in Frontiers in Pharmacology (2020, with D.B. Finlay et al., cited 131 times), 'ALK and IGF-1R as independent targets in crizotinib resistant lung cancer' (2017, with C. Wilson et al.), 'Cytotoxicity of curcumin derivatives in ALK positive non-small cell lung cancer' (2019, with A.R. Bland et al.), and 'Does the mouse tail vein injection method provide a good model of drug input for studying breast cancer lung metastases?' in F1000Research (2019, with N. Shrestha et al.). Her research demonstrates impact through interdisciplinary collaborations and publications in prominent journals, advancing understanding in cancer therapeutics, cannabinoid pharmacology, and receptor signaling.