He received a PhD in Pharmacology from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 2002. Following his PhD studies, he did postdoctoral training from 2003-2007 at the Vollum Institute on the campus of The Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and in 2007, joined the Faculty in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He remained on faculty there until joining UT Dallas in 2014.