Dr. Usachev grew up in Kiev, Ukraine. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Biology and Biophysics in 1993 from the Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology (Kiev, Ukraine). After that, he received an Eastern European Award for postdoctoral training at Cambridge University (UK), before moving to the University of Minnesota in 1995, where he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and then Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. He joined the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Iowa as an Assistant Professor in 2003, and where he is now John P. Long Endowed Professor of Pharmacology. In his free time, Dr. Usachev enjoys reading, running, bicycling, traveling and spending time with his family.