Paul Watkins

About

Paul Watkins is the Howard Q. Ferguson Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. His research focuses on mechanistic toxicology, hepatic toxicology, research translation, and biomarkers. He is associated with the Institute for Drug Safety Sciences at the Research Triangle Park campus. His work involves understanding the mechanisms underlying toxicological effects, particularly in the liver, and translating these findings into practical applications for drug safety and environmental health. Watkins has contributed to the field through his leadership and research in toxicology, with a focus on improving safety assessments and biomarker development.

Research topics

• Pharmacology
• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Computer Science
• Computer Security
• Gastroenterology
• Environmental health
• Intensive care medicine
• Genetics
• Risk analysis (engineering)

Selected publications

• Precision Dosing Priority Criteria: Drug, Disease, and Patient Population Variables

  Frontiers in Pharmacology · 2020 · 129 citations

  The administered dose of a drug modulates whether patients will experience optimal effectiveness, toxicity including death, or no effect at all. Dosing is particularly important for diseases and/or drugs where the drug can decrease severe morbidity or prolong life. Likewise, dosing is important where the drug can cause death or severe morbidity. Since we believe there are many examples where more precise dosing could benefit patients, it is worthwhile to consider how to prioritize drug-disease t…

  DOI

• Cannabidiol and Abnormal Liver Chemistries in Healthy Adults: Results of a Phase I Clinical Trial

  Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics · 2020 · 96 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Liver safety concerns were raised in randomized controlled trials of cannabidiol (CBD) in patients with Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet syndromes, but the relevance of these concerns to healthy adults consuming CBD is unclear. The objective of this manuscript is to report on liver safety findings from healthy adults who received therapeutic daily doses of CBD for ~ 3.5 weeks and to investigate any correlation between transaminase elevations and baseline characteristics, pharmacogenetic, and pharmacoki…

  DOI

• Polygenic architecture informs potential vulnerability to drug-induced liver injury

  Nature Medicine · 2020 · 78 citations

  DOI

• Comparing the Liver Safety Profiles of 4 Next-Generation CGRP Receptor Antagonists to the Hepatotoxic CGRP Inhibitor Telcagepant Using Quantitative Systems Toxicology Modeling

  Toxicological Sciences · 2022 · 47 citations

  Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) signaling inhibitors have shown efficacy in both the acute and preventive treatment of migraine. Telcagepant, a first-generation CGRP receptor antagonist, was effective but failed in clinical trials due to hepatotoxicity. Subsequently, although 4 next-generation CGRP receptor antagonists (rimegepant, zavegepant, atogepant, and ubrogepant) were being advanced into late-stage clinical trials, due to telcagepant's failure, more confidence in the liver safety o…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Identification of Reduced ERAP2 Expression and a Novel HLA Allele as Components of a Risk Score for Susceptibility to Liver Injury Due to Amoxicillin-Clavulanate

  Gastroenterology · 2022-12-07 · 43 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant M01RR000046

  NIH · $3.5M · 2008

• NIH Grant P01ES004238

  NIH · $4.8M · 1999

• NIH Grant R55ES005770

  NIH · $100k · 1993

Frequent coauthors

• Robert J. Fontana

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  142 shared

• Naga Chalasani

  127 shared

• Herbert L. Bonkovsky

  Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

  103 shared

• José Serrano

  98 shared

• Erin G. Schuetz

  90 shared

• Timothy J. Davern

  88 shared

• James Rochon

  86 shared

• Brett A. Howell

  Simulations Plus (United States)

  83 shared

Labs

• Curriculum in Toxicology & Environmental MedicinePI

Education

• Ph.D., Toxicology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1995

• M.S., Toxicology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1992

• B.S., Toxicology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1989

Awards & honors

• Howard Q. Ferguson Distinguished Professor

Similar researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Scott Randellh-100
• Alexander Tropshah-93
• Beverly Kollerh-91