Wayne State Professor David Edwards has been named head of the department of pharmacy practice in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Edwards is a professor of pharmacy practice and adjunct professor of pediatrics in Wayne State's School of Medicine. He joined Wayne State's faculty in 1983.

His research specializes in drug metabolism and disposition. He has completed a number of studies investigating the interaction between grapefruit juice and prescription medication and his laboratory was the first to identify the potential cause of this interaction.

Edwards also works with the NICHD-supported Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit based at Children's Hospital of Michigan to improve understanding of drug disposition and usage in children.

A native of Schomberg, Ontario, Edwards earned a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Toronto in 1978 and a doctorate of pharmacy from SUNY at Buffalo in 1981.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.