(From left) Ed Perez-Reyes, PhD, Carl Creutz, PhD, Debbie Perez-Reyes
On June 13, 2024, the Department of Pharmacology celebrated the retirement of Carl Creutz, PhD, who was recruited to the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Virginia as an assistant professor in 1981. In 1987, he was promoted to associate professor and in 1994 to full professor. In 2003, Dr. Creutz was elected as the Harrison Professor of Medical Teaching in Pharmacology.
From 1985 to 1990, Dr. Creutz’s research program was supported by an Established Investigator Fellowship from the American Heart Association. During a sabbatical leave in 1995 to 1996, Dr. Creutz served as an NIH-funded Fogarty Senior International Fellow at the Centre de Genetique Moleculaire at the CNRS in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. During a sabbatical leave in 2008, Dr. Creutz served as the Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellow at Downing College, University of Cambridge, England.
Dr. Creutz’s research program has focused on the roles of calcium-dependent, membrane-binding proteins in exocytosis and other membrane-based phenomena in stimulated cells and has led to several novel and expanding areas of research including the following:
- Annexins — Dr. Creutz discovered the annexin family of calcium-dependent proteins, and explored their functional roles in exocytosis, endocytosis and membrane repair in health and disease.
- Synaptotagmins — Dr. Creutz’s group conducted some of the original characterization of the biochemical and membrane-binding activities of the calcium-binding domains of synaptotagmin, a protein that regulates membrane fusion in exocytosis in neurons and other cells.
- Copines — During his sabbatical in France, Dr. Creutz discovered a novel group of calcium-dependent proteins he named copines in the model organism Paramecium tetraaurelia. Subsequently, his group characterized copines from a number of different organisms and provided a detailed biochemical characterization of the major human copine, copine I.
Dr. Creutz has made major contributions to the Department of Pharmacology’s teaching programs and to the University. He has trained 13 postdoctoral fellows in his laboratory, and 11 graduate students who received PhD’s in pharmacology, microbiology, biophysics, or neuroscience. He also provided research training in his laboratory to 28 undergraduate students. Since 1990, he has taught the General Principles of Pharmacology to over 2,400 first- and second-year medical students.
In the future, Dr. Creutz anticipates continuing scholarly activities at a reduced pace, but perhaps in a broader scope.
Filed Under: Faculty