Richard Deth Retires in 2014
After more than 37 years of distinguished academic career, Professor Richard Deth is retiring as a faculty member at Northeastern University in July, 2014.
During his tenure, Professor Deth has served many different roles including the Director of Pharmacy Program and Chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, before deciding to solely focus on his research interests. Although he started his career as a cardiovascular researcher, he soon realized that his research had implications in various other fields including neuropsychiatric disorders. His lab was the first to characterize the implications of dopamine D4 receptor-mediated phospholipid methylation in neuronal synchronization, especially in attention-related disorders. Dr. Deth stated that,
“One doesn’t get the chance to make truly novel discoveries very often. Most scientific advances are incremental, modestly advancing the field of knowledge, but I felt strongly that our discovery of D4 receptor–mediated phospholipid methylation (PLM) was important.”
Along with teaching several pharmacology graduate and undergraduate courses for all these years, Professor Deth has been a mentor to 17 PhD students, along with a number of other graduate and undergraduate students, visiting scientists, and post-doctoral associates. He believes that the true value of science lies in its implications and relevance to the everyday life.
Professor Deth’s publication record includes over 100 research articles, book chapters and several patents to his name. He has also authored a book entitled ”Molecular Origins of Human Attention: The Dopamine-Folate Connection”. Realizing the potential implications of his finding in the then-very less understood autism spectrum disorders, he switched to identifying the role of redox-based methylation regulation in various neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, ADHD, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. His research has been recognized by several awards and his work has been funded by various agencies including Autism Research Institute, National Institute of Health, Autism Speaks, Sultanate of Oman and A2 Corporation.