Does every patient need a genetic test before taking the cancer drug irinotecan? Does cranberry juice impede the breakdown of some medicines the way grapefruit juice does? Can giving HIV-infected mothers antiretroviral drugs in the first six months of their babies’ lives make it safe to breastfeed?

Those are just a few examples of the kind of questions our researchers are asking. Research in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics focuses on assessing emerging therapeutic drugs and evaluating their safety, efficacy, and impact on specialized populations. Our faculty collaborates with researchers and professional practitioners across campus, throughout the state, and around the world. We have strong ties with industry as well, and two of our faculty — division chair Kim Brouwer and executive associate dean Gary Pollack — helped cofound a company based on the breakthrough research they conducted in collaboration with fellow School of Pharmacy professor Dhiren Thakker.

In 2006, the School formed the UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy, a research center that is the first of its kind in the United States. Under the direction of DPET professor Howard McLeod, an internationally recognized expert in pharmacogenmoics, the institute will bring together researchers from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Business, Law, and Journalism with the goal of finding ways to match medicines to the unique makeup of patients so as to improve efficacy and safety.

See the division faculty page for more
information on our faculty and their research

• Current Research
• Recent Grants
  
• Recent Publications
• Recent Presentations
• Centers and Programs
  
  

• Drug Induced Liver Injury Network
  Paul B. Watkins: National Institutes of Health. 8/30/08 – 7/31/12. $1,250,000.
• Shared UPLC-MS/MS for absolute quantitative proteomics
  Mary Paine (co-PI): Shared Instrument Grant. NCRR, NIH. $381,000 (total direct costs).
• Dysfunctional Eicosanoid Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease
  Craig R. Lee: Junior Faculty Development Award, UNC-Chapel Hill, Office of the Provost. 1/1/08 – 12/31/08. $7,500 (total direct costs).
• Pharmacokinetics of enalapril and carvedilol with inhibition of transporters by famotidine
  Jo Ellen Rodgers: University Research Council, UNC-Chapel Hill. $5,000 (total direct costs).
• Characterization of novel antiretroviral resistance among HIV-infected patients in the UNC-CH cohort
  Corbett AH: Virco Laboratories. 05/08 – 12/08. $15,000.
• Pharmacokinetics of Lopinavir/ritonavir in Breastmilk and Breastfeeding Infants
  Corbett AH: Abbott Laboratories. 04/08 – 12/08. $31,000.

• Plasma bile acid concentrations in HIV infected subjects taking protease inhibitor therapy: possible implications for hepatotoxicity.
  McRae MP, Rezk N, Bridges A, Corbett A, Tien H-C, Brouwer K, and Kashuba ADM. Pharmacotherapy 2009 [in press].
• Pharmacokinetics of generic and trade formulations of lamivudine, stavudine, and nevirapine in HIV-infected Malawian Children.
  Corbett AH, Hosseinipour M, Nyirenda J, Kanyama C, Rezk N, Mkupani P, Sichali D, Tien H, Kashuba A, Mwansambo C, Weigel R, Kazembe P. Antiviral Therapy, [under review].
• Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiological Approach and Pharmacotherapy Principles and Practice (7th Edition-in press).
  Corbett A, Yeh R, Dumond J, Kashuba A.
• Evaluation and management of thrombocytopenia and suspected heparin-induced thrombocytopenia in hospitalized patients: The Complications After Thrombocytopenia Caused by Heparin (CATCH) registry.
  Crespo EM, Oliveira GB, Honeycutt EF, Becker RC, Berger PB, Moliterno DJ, Anstrom KJ, Abrams CS, Kleiman NS, Moll S, Rice L, Rodgers JE, Steinhubl SR, Tapson VF, Granger CB, Ohman EM; CATCH Registry Investigators. Am Heart J  2009; 57:651-7.
• An Update of High-Impact Articles Related to the Pharmacotherapeutic Management of Heart Failure.
  Jackevicius C, Ng TM, Chow SL, Dunn SP, Carter O, Page RL, Lee CR, Rodgers JE, Wiggins BS, Munger MA. (on behalf of the ACCP Cardiology Practice and Research Network). Pharmacotherapy 2009; 29: 82-120.
• Acute Care Cardiology. In Updates in Therapeutics: The Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review Course, Volume 1.
  Rodgers JE. American College of Clinical Pharmacy; 2009; 1:335-368.
• Heart Failure. In Dipiro JT, Talbert RL, Yes GC, et al (Eds). Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach, Seventh Edition. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc; 2008:173-216.
  Parker RB, Rodgers JE, Cavallari LH.
• A hybrid jigsaw approach to teach renal clearance concepts.
  A.M. Persky and G.M. Pollack.  Am J Pharm Educ, accepted.
• Sites of Extra Hepatic Metabolism, Part II: Gut.  In: Handbook of Drug Metabolism (2nd ed.).
  Paine MF.  Pearson PG, Wienkers LC (eds.).  Informa Healthcare USA, Inc., New York, NY, 2009, pp. 273-98.

• "Teaching to Think: Cooperative Learning in Large Classes"
  Wendy Cox and Adam Persky. American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) National Meeting, Boston, MA 2009
• “Getting off the pedagogical couch: teaching exercise science in the 21stcentury”
  Adam Persky. American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), 2009, Seattle, WA
• “Can medications and exercise have opposing effects? A discussion of the physiologic changes when medications and exercise are combined"
  Barry Braun (University of Massachusetts-Amherst), Adam Persky. American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), 2009, Seattle, WA.
• “Acute Care Cardiology.” 2009 Updates in Therapeutics: The Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review Course.
  Jo Ellen Rodgers. American College of Clinical Pharmacy/European Society of Clinical Pharmacy International Congress on Clinical Pharmacy. Orlando, FL. April, 2009.
• “Direct-to-Consumer Advertising: Putting Patients in the Drivers’ Seat?”
  Jo Ellen Rodgers. In the Challenges in Health Communications: Meeting and Exceeding Patient Expectations Session. American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session. Orlando, FL. March, 2009.
• “Update on the Management of Chronic Heart Failure”
  Jo Ellen Rodgers. North Carolina Association of Pharmacists Chronic Care Practice Forum. Concord, NC. March, 2009.
• Use of Clinical trials to identify novel biomarkers of hepatotoxicity
  Paul Watkins: CBI Symposium on Hepatotoxicity; November 6-7, 2008
• “Comparison of the hepatobiliary disposition of DB289 and DB868”
  Mary Paine: Consortium for Parasitic Drug Development Annual Scientific Meeting; Atlanta, GA; October 30, 2008.