Category: Faculty
School Names 2012 Instructors and Preceptors of the Year
May 1, 2012PharmD students at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have selected associate professor Dennis Williams, PharmD, as the 2012 PY2 Instructor of the Year and the PY4 Overall Instructor of the Year. Williams and other honorees were recognized during the School’s Awards Day Ceremony on April 29. The honorees were: PY1 Instructor of the Year: Russell Mumper, PhD, John McNeill Distinguished Professor and vice dean, Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics PY2 Instructor of the Year: Dennis Williams, PharmD, associate professor, Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics PY3 Instructor of the Year: Jay Campbell, JD, adjunct assistant professor PY4 Overall Instructor of … Read more
Three Student-Faculty Teams Named 2012 Walmart Scholars
April 17, 2012Three student-faculty teams from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have been named Walmart Scholars by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, marking the sixth consecutive year that the School has had at least one recipient for the award. The School’s 2012 winners: Kara Parsons and her faculty mentor, clinical assistant professor Lisa Dinkins, PharmD Allison Riendeau, PharmD, and her faculty mentor, clinical assistant professorJena Ivey Burkhart, PharmD Jennifer Waitzman, PharmD, and her faculty mentor, clinical assistant professor Kelly Scolaro, PharmD The Walmart Scholars Program aims to strengthen the award recipients’ skills and commitment to a career in academic … Read more
Function of Enzyme 3-OST Becomes Crystal Clear to Liu
April 2, 2012Scientists at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have crystallized 3-O-sulfotransferase, giving a clearer look at the internal composition of an enzyme critical to making a synthetic form of the blood thinner heparin. “It’s like having x-ray vision,” says Jian Liu, PhD, a professor at the School. “The crystal structure brings order to the approximately 300 amino acid residues that make up this enzyme that is a key to the biosynthesis of heparin.” In the final stage of synthesizing synthetic heparin, 3-OST-1 combines with a cofactor to impart anticoagulant properties to a heparin … Read more
Mike Jay to Chair Molecular Pharmaceutics
April 1, 2012Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor Michael “Mike” Jay, PhD, will succeed Leaf Huang, PhD, as the new chair of the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as of April 1. Huang, who is also an Eshelman professor, has been chair of the division since coming to the School in 2005 from the University of Pittsburgh. “Professor Jay is very highly regarded in the fields of pharmaceutics, drug delivery, and radiopharmaceutics. He also brings considerable administrative experience having directed a unique FDA-registered university-based pharmaceutical manufacturing facility for nine years,” says Bob Blouin, dean of the pharmacy school. … Read more
UNC Research Center Receives Contract to Fight Kidney Cancer
March 8, 2012The Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a contract from SAIC-Frederick, Inc. to develop potential drug leads for treating renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer in adults. The contract, which is part of the National Cancer Institute’s Chemical Biology Consortium program, will provide more than $843,000 over eighteen months to support research led by William Janzen and Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD. Janzen is the director of assay development and compound profiling at the CICBDD, while Rathmell is an associate professor in the UNC … Read more
Zamboni Receives Tenure from UNC Trustees
February 27, 2012William Zamboni, PharmD, PhD, has been granted tenure by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. Zamboni is an associate professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. As a member of the School’s Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, Zamboni is the director of the UNC GLP Bioanalytical Facility and the director of the Translational Oncology and Nanoparticle Drug Development Initiative Lab, known as TOND2I. He is also the codirector of the North Carolina Biomedical Innovation Network for GLP toxicology and pharmacology studies of small molecule and nanoparticle agents. GLP is good laboratory practice, a … Read more
Arthritis Researcher Blalock Promoted to Professor
February 22, 2012Susan J. Blalock, MPH, PhD, a behavioral scientist who has focused primarily on the prevention and treatment of arthritis during her career, has been promoted to the rank of professor by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. “Dr. Blalock’s research into the behavioral factors that affect the health of individuals has been cited by investigators around the world,” says Bob Blouin, dean of the School. “Her elevation to professor is acknowledgment of her expertise and of her amazing level of commitment to her division, the School, the University, and state in all areas of teaching, … Read more
Rodgers Elected to National Academies of Practice
February 16, 2012Clinical associate professor Jo Ellen Rodgers, PharmD, has been elected as a distinguished practitioner and fellow in the National Academies of Practice in the Pharmacy Academy. Rodgers is a faculty member in the School’s Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and associate director of the division’s clinical fellowship programs. She is also a clinical pharmacist in the Cardiomyopathy and Cardiac Transplantation Service at UNC Hospitals, where she directs the PGY2 residency in cardiology. Rodgers currently serves on the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Board of Regents and the Board of Pharmacy Specialties Pharmacotherapy Specialty Council. She is a fellow of … Read more
Emekalam Receives Subgrant to Fight Diabetes
February 14, 2012Clinical assistant professor Anthony Emekalam, PharmD, has received a $20,000 subgrant from the Centers for Disease Control to support a pilot program for diabetes prevention and management care. The subgrant comes from the Medical University of South Carolina College of Nursing’s REACH US: SEA-CEED program. It will fund Steps of Faith, a project that recruits local ministers to help persuade members of the black community to get more diabetes screenings, exercise more, and switch to healthier diets. The program will focus on heads of households or leaders of families with a history that puts them at risk for diabetes or … Read more
Researchers Watch as Protein Shakes off Molecular Messengers
February 9, 2012Most drugs are designed to attach to a protein and either activate or inhibit the protein’s function (usually the latter). One of the measures of a good drug is how tightly it binds to its target protein. Eventually a drug molecule, known as a ligand or signaling molecule, will lose its grip and stop working, a process known as disassociation. The disassociation rates of drugs have been studied and measured for years, but the mechanism behind disassociation for proteins whose binding sites lie on the surface has not been explored to any great degree. Andrew Lee, PhD, and a team … Read more