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Personal Biography of Dr. Stephen Brimijoin
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Dr. Stephen Brimijoin is Clement Professor and past Chair (1993-2003) of Pharmacology at Mayo Medical School and Distinguished Investigator at Mayo Clinic, which he joined in 1971 after two years at the National Institutes of Health. For over thirty years he has investigated the neurobiology, pharmacology, and toxicology of cholinesterase enzymes, including studies on the pathophysiology of their axonal transport in human peripheral nerve. He contributed substantially to knowledge of the cellular distribution and fate of the molecular forms of these enzymes in brain. He discovered that anti-esterase antibodies destroy central sympathetic neurons in a selective manner that provides insights into the pathophysiology of the autonomic nervous system. He used genetically engineered neuronal cell lines to show that this acetylcholinesterase may promote nerve growth and maturation, in addition to regulating cholinergic transmission. More recently, his research team modified human plasma cholinesterase to produce a cocaine-metabolizing enzyme that blocks physiological responses to this drug and may pave the way for a gene therapy of addiction. In cholinergic toxicology, Dr. Brimijoin helped generate more potent oxime reactivators to rescue individuals from pesticide overdose, and he devised a new method to detect cholinesterase inhibition that yields more precise benchmark doses for carbamate pesticides. He is now investigating the developmental neurotoxicity of organophosphates, on which he provided invited testimony to the NAS Committee on the Use of Third Party Toxicity Research with Human Research Participants. Dr. Brimijoin has served on the editorial boards of several journals (currently, Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology) and on the Mayo Human Studies Committee (IRB). For over ten years he has been an ad hoc member of multiple sessions of the EPA FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel (FIFRA SAP). In recognition for research accomplishments, he received a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award (1987-94) a Humboldt Foundation Senior Distinguished U.S. Scientist Award (1987-88) and an annual Distinguished Investigator Award from Mayo Clinic (1992-present). He completed his undergraduate and graduate training at Harvard (B.A., 1964; Ph.D., 1969).