Following a national search, Wayne State University has named Serrine S. Lau as dean of the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, effective Jan. 19, 2016. Lau is currently a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Arizona, where she also is director of the school's Center for Toxicology and the affiliated Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center. 

Previously, she spent 17 years in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin, rising through the ranks to full professor and serving as director of a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences-supported toxicology graduate training program. 

"Dr. Lau has extensive experience in leadership, program building and strategic planning at two major public universities," said WSU Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Margaret E. Winters. "She is a strong addition to the academic leadership at Wayne State."

Lau also serves as chairwoman of the Division of Toxicology of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Her research focuses on three major areas: mechanisms of chemical-induced nephrotoxicity and nephrocarcinogenicity; prostanoid- and retinoid-mediated cytoprotection against renal injury; and proteomics approaches for the identification of chemical-induced protein post-translational modifications, along with biomarker discovery for diseases including diabetes, asthma and cancer. Lau collaborates extensively with basic and clinical scientists, integrating the basic sciences with translational opportunities in environmental health sciences research. 

The recipient of numerous awards, Lau has more than 160 publications and 300 published abstracts. 

She received her bachelor's in mathematics and chemistry from the University of Houston, her Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Michigan, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. 

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students.