June 26, 2024
The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy has appointed its new Assistant Dean for Research. Lisa Tarantino, Ph.D., will join the School and its research enterprise on July 1.
Tarantino has her own lab in the UNC School of Medicine, Department of Genetics, but in her role as the faculty director of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program (BBSP), she discovered her interest in working on an administrative level.
“For the last four years, I’ve been the faculty director for the medical school’s biomedical graduate program,” said Tarantino. “Through that role, I realized that I really enjoyed learning how the University functions from an administrative perspective.”
In her new role, Tarantino will spearhead efforts to further develop and strengthen the research enterprise and, among other responsibilities, provide scientific guidance for the School’s centers, cores and recharge facilities.
“The School has grown so much in research funding in the last five years – my hope is to facilitate research growth by supporting faculty in their efforts to apply for larger funding opportunities that support collaborations within and outside of Carolina,” she said. “I also hope to develop and implement project management resources that support larger projects from the planning stages to implementation.”
Tarantino earned her Ph.D. in Genetics from Pennsylvania State University in 1998. She was a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego in 2000 as a Staff Scientist and Group Leader.
In 2007, Tarantino was appointed as an assistant professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry. She was then promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2014 in the Department of Psychiatry and moved to the Department of Genetics in 2016 where she was promoted to full professor in 2021. She has held a secondary appointment in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics in the School since she joined Carolina faculty almost 17 years ago.
Tarantino is an accomplished behavioral geneticist. Her research, funded by NIH since 2006, is focused on addiction, anxiety, stress and depression, with the primary goal of identifying genes involved in behaviors that model psychiatric disease. She currently serves as vice chair for the UNC Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and served as the faculty director of the BBSP in the UNC School of Medicine for four years.
Although she will continue in her research and manage her lab, she’s excited for this new venture.
“I’m excited to meet with all the faculty and learn more about research efforts across the school so that I can envision how groups can work collaboratively and pursue grants jointly,” she said. “I’m also looking forward to building processes that are useful for faculty in their research, and ultimately, seeing the impact of growing research programs and the research portfolio of the School.”
Latest News
NIH award leads to deeper study of brain malformations
PharmAlliance brings global partners to Chapel Hill
