9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0657
La Jolla, CA 92093
La Jolla, CA 92093
Bio
Dr. Brookie Best is the Dean of the University of California (UC) San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SSPPS) and is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Pediatrics at SSPPS and the School of Medicine (SOM), Department of Pediatrics - Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego. She completed a Bachelor of Science degree at UC San Diego in Chemistry with an Emphasis in Chemical Education in 1994. She received her Pharm.D. Degree in 1999 from UC San Francisco, and did her residency in Pharmacy Practice at the UC San Diego Medical Center in 2000. Dr. Best was an NICHD/NIH Fellowship recipient in Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology Research from 2001 to 2004 under the guidance of Drs. James Connor and Edmund Capparelli, and completed a Masters of Advanced Studies (M.A.S.) in Clinical Research at UC San Diego in 2007.
Research Interests
Dr. Best specializes in pharmacokinetics - the processes by which a drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolized and eliminated by the body. She focuses on perinatal and pediatric clinical pharmacology research, figuring out the right doses of medications to use during pregnancy, lactation and childhood. Her research efforts have focused on studying anti-HIV drugs in pregnant women, children and non-pregnant adults. She also studies drugs used to treat Kawasaki disease, the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children. She has specific interests and expertise in maternal-fetal clinical pharmacology, therapeutic drug monitoring of antiretrovirals, and penetration of antiretrovirals into the central nervous system. Dr. Best's research program encompasses projects with key state-wide, national and international HIV/AIDS and pediatric pharmacology collaborative research networks.