Rate My Professor Sterling Sudweeks

Sterling N. Sudweeks is an Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology in the College of Life Sciences at Brigham Young University. He received his B.S. in Microbiology, with an emphasis in Molecular Biology, from Brigham Young University in 1992 and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Utah in 1997. After earning his doctorate, Sudweeks completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/NIH in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, from 1997 to 2001. He joined Brigham Young University as an Assistant Professor in 2001 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007. In 2014, he served as a visiting professor in the laboratory of Dr. Jie Wu at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.

Sudweeks' research focuses on characterizing ligand-gated ion channels that function as neurotransmitter receptors in synaptic transmission, including neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, GABA receptors, serotonin 5-HT3 receptors, and glycine receptors. These channels play roles in normal brain function and pathological conditions such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and motor disorders, and serve as targets for therapeutics including general anesthetics and analgesics. He has obtained substantial funding as principal investigator on an NIH Transition to Independent Position Award and as co-investigator on multiple NIH R01 grants investigating neuropharmacological substrates of alcohol and nicotine dependence. Notable publications include "Functional and Molecular Characterization of Neuronal Nicotinic ACh Receptors in Rat CA1 Hippocampal Neurons" (Journal of Physiology, 2000), "Serotonin 5-HT3 Receptors in Rat CA1 Hippocampal Interneurons: Functional and Molecular Characterization" (Journal of Physiology, 2002), and "Acute and Chronic Ethanol Modulate Dopamine D2-Subtype Receptor Responses in Ventral Tegmental Area GABA Neurons" (Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2009). Sudweeks has earned awards including the BYU Physiology and Developmental Biology Department Award for Outstanding Teaching and Citizenship (2018), BYU College of Life Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award (2021), Martin Rodbell Memorial Awards for best postdoctoral seminar (1999, 2000), and the Fellows Award for Research Excellence (2000). He teaches physiology, pharmacology, biophysics, and neuroscience and has given public lectures on the biological basis of learning, memory, and happiness.