Clinton Van't Land, PhD

Dr. Van’t Land received his undergraduate training at the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology in Minneapolis, MN and received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. At the University of Washington, he trained under Dr. Heinz Floss in the biosynthesis of natural products from bacteria to evaluate the biosynthetic enzyme pathways of primary and secondary intermediates and their precursors. Isotope enriched enzyme products and pathway intermediates were isolated using chromatographic techniques and identified by NMR analysis. To enhance his training in enzyme pathways, Dr. Van’t Land did his post-doctoral training at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) with Dr. Neal Castagnoli, Jr. and learned about the metabolic pathways of neurotransmitters by investigating the monoamine oxidase (MAO) metabolites of haloperidol and other neurotoxins. In 1994, Dr. Van’t Land began a career as a senior scientist in the pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism group at Alcon Laboratories, Inc. in Fort Worth, TX. He conducted drug metabolism studies to evaluate the metabolic fate or biodisposition of xenobiotics or biotherapeutics from biological samples derived from animals and man and in vitro mammalian subcellular fractions or cell cultures. Dr. Van't Land contributed to the development of 19 FDA-approved drugs for treatment of ocular disease with research involved in the optimization of methods for metabolite profiling and identification (Met ID) that included the preparation of non-labeled and radio labeled formulations, processing of biological samples, chromatographic separation using HPLC and UV/radiochemical detectors and tandem mass spectrometry. He moved to the University of Pittsburgh and joined the Vockley Lab as a Senior Staff Scientist in September 2017 and became the Director of the Rangos Metabolic Core Facility in January 2019.