Rate My Professor Alex French

Dr. Alex French is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy, joining in 2024. He earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Chicago in 2016 and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010. During his graduate work at the University of Chicago, he engineered optogenetic proteins in the labs of Dr. Tobin Sosnick and Dr. Ron Rock. Following his Ph.D., French served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Mathew Tantama lab in Purdue University's Department of Chemistry, developing novel biosensors to study small molecule dynamics. He then worked in the Richard van Rijn lab in Purdue's Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry, where he studied opioid re-engineering for treating alcohol use disorder and contributed to ClickArr, a high-throughput screen for G protein-coupled receptor agonists. From 2022 to 2024, he conducted postdoctoral research in the Catherine Christian-Hinman lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, using whole-cell patch-clamp techniques to investigate brain-derived estrogens' role in modulating epilepsy in Alzheimer’s disease models. French teaches pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Pharmacy and is affiliated with the university's Neuroscience Ph.D. Program, Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences Program, and Biomedical Sciences Program.

French's research lies at the intersection of neuroscience, pharmacology, and chemical biology, focusing on how alcohol and psychedelics alter brain function to repurpose psychedelics as treatments for alcohol use disorder with reduced hallucinogenic potential. His NIH- and NASA-funded work employs protein engineering, drug screening, electrophysiology, and behavioral assays to develop molecular tools such as high-throughput screens, optogenetic probes, and biosensors probing GPCR and neuropeptide signaling. This includes studies on psychedelic-induced sensory alterations, neurobiology of alcohol misuse, biased agonism at kappa opioid receptors, and neuroendocrine modulation in Alzheimer’s disease. He has published in Nature Methods, PNAS, Pharmacology Research, Experimental Neurology, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Frontiers in Pharmacology, and ACS Omega, and holds patents on molecular tools and optogenetic probes adopted worldwide for translational research. French serves as a pilot leader in university initiatives.