Kent Eugene Vrana is an American pharmacologist. He was born in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

, and attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Vrana then enrolled at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

, where he studied biochemistry, graduating in 1978. He pursued a doctorate in the subject from the

Louisiana State University Medical Center The Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (MCLNO) was the name of two teaching hospitals in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Both hospitals were part of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans commonly referred to as the LSU Medic ...

, completing graduate study in 1983, followed by postdoctoral study at the

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

. Vrana began teaching at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

in 1986 as an assistant professor. He left for the

Wake Forest University School of Medicine Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the medical school of Wake Forest University, with two campuses located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is affiliated with Atrium Health Wake Forest ...

in 1991, and became a full professor in 2001. Vrana was named chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the Milton S. Hersey Medical Center at Penn State in 2004 after

Elliot Vesell Elliot Saul Vesell (December 24, 1933 – July 23, 2018) was an American pharmacologist. A New York City native born on December 24, 1933, Vesell attended Horace Mann School and Philips Exeter Academy before enrolling at Harvard University, where ...

stepped down. He concurrently holds the Elliot S. Vesell professorship at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, and serves as the founding Director of the Pennsylvania-designated Medical Marijuana Academic Clinical Research Center (ACRC) at Penn State.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vrana, Kent Living people American pharmacologists People from Lincoln, Nebraska People from Council Bluffs, Iowa University of Iowa alumni Louisiana State University alumni West Virginia University faculty Wake Forest University faculty Pennsylvania State University faculty Year of birth missing (living people)