Dr. Niswender is renowned for her work in drug discover and serves as the Director of Molecular Pharmacology for the WCNDD, with a specific focus on neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome.
Dr. Niswender is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and currently serves as the Warren Director of Molecular Pharmacology for the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (WCNDD). Dr. Niswender's work focuses on high throughput screening, assay development, and in vitro pharmacology experiments to investigate the effects of novel modulators on cellular signaling pathways. Dr. Niswender has been or is currently involved in many of the main WCNDD collaborations, including those partnered with Neumora, Acadia, Boehringer-Ingelheim, the William K. Warren Foundation, and the NIH. Two of Dr. Niswender's projects have progressed to clinical trials. Most recently, Dr. Niswender has initiated studies around neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome, Pitt Hopkins syndrome, and Neurofibromatosis Type 1, and is actively searching for new treatments for these disorders. Dr. Niswender is also working on RNA editing projects as a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of brain diseases.