William F. Elmquist is currently Professor and Director of the Brain Barriers Research Center, at the University of Minnesota, Department of Pharmaceutics.  He received his pharmacy degree at the University of Florida, and Pharm.D. and Ph.D. (pharmacokinetics) from the University of Minnesota.  His research has studied the influence of active efflux transporters in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) on CNS drug distribution.  An important project currently underway is examining the determinants of anticancer drug permeability in the blood-brain barrier to improve the treatment of brain tumors.  Long-term objectives of Dr. Elmquist's research include examining expression and regulation of transport systems in key tissues that influence drug disposition, and how variability in expression, either genetically or environmentally controlled, may contribute to variability in drug response in the patient.  Dr. Elmquist has long been a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry and the NIH, served on many journal editorial boards, and is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS).