Rick Cote is the department chair of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences at UNH. His expertise is in the visual signaling pathway in retinal rod and cone photoreceptors of the human eye. His research program contributes basic knowledge to the development of therapeutic approaches to intervene in retinal degenerative diseases (e.g., retinitis pigmentosa) and blindness. His research on the phosphodiesterase (PDE) enzyme family focuses not only on the photoreceptor PDE, but also other members of this enzyme family that in humans are targets for therapeutic drugs (such as Viagra and Cialis). He is also exploring possible agricultural applications of PDE inhibitors as potential pesticides.