Dr. Nicole Avalon, who recently joined the UC Irvine School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences as an assistant professor, conducts research that looks to the ocean for potential disease treatments.
“In the Avalon Lab, I use multi-omics approaches (e.g. metabolomics, genomics) to discover new compounds from the ocean that are biologically active against human diseases, specifically neurodegenerative diseases and secondary neuronal injury following traumatic brain injury, cerebral ischemia, or subarachnoid hemorrhage,” she stated. “The link between nature and human health is undeniable, and I believe nature holds the cure to many diseases.”
A native Floridian who grew up camping, swimming in the ocean, and exploring the outdoors, Dr. Avalon attended the University of South Florida, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences with a minor in public health.
“It was at the University of South Florida that I got to experience the wild and wondrous world of marine natural products,” she shared. “This is a multidisciplinary field combining analytical chemistry, biochemistry, chemical ecology, microbiology, and pharmacognosy — all with a side of adventure.”
She then went on to pursue physician assistant schooling from the University of Florida and worked as a physician assistant with Mayo Clinic.
“I observed at the bedside that more treatment options were needed for patients suffering from severe neurologic diseases,” said Dr. Avalon, who was inspired to return to academia through this experience.
“I decided to pursue my PhD in Chemistry,” she said. “This way, I could address some of the fundamental neurologic questions about the cascade of secondary neuronal injury and discover new neurotherapeutics.”
With support from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), Dr. Avalon completed further training in marine natural products at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She also earned an American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) Scientific Diver Certification.
Now, as part of the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr. Avalon is prepared to collaborate with fellow faculty members; medicine, nursing, and population and public health professionals throughout the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences; and the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute to advance pharmaceutical sciences research.
“UCI offers a wonderful interdisciplinary environment close to the Pacific Ocean. There is an incredible group of scientists in the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences researching a wide range of topics, yet situated under a common theme — improving human health,” she said. “I am slated to move into the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building as part of the Robert A. Mah Molecular Innovation Center and could not more excited to work with the team that has been assembled to move our discoveries from ‘bench to bedside,’ and in my case, from ‘beach to bench to bedside.’”
