Article courtesy of UNC Global

Dhiren Thakker, PhD

Ferguson Distinguished Professor

Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics

Research Interests

Mechanisms of drug transport; structure-transport relationships; prodrug strategies for tumor-targeting; metabolism of drugs and xenobiotics; delivery and disposition of macromolecules.

Dhiren Thakker does it all: professor in the School of Pharmacy, researcher, entrepreneur. And as “diplomat,” he travels far and wide to negotiate international partnerships.

Dhiren Thakker carries around a lot in his head. So much, in fact, that he wears three or four hats a day to hold it all.

He is a professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, associate dean for research and graduate education, researcher on drug absorption and metabolism, and start-up entrepreneur; Thakker constantly puts down one hat to pick up another.

“I think I’ve done a little bit of a lot of things,” he said.

Add to that list “international ambassador.”

Two years ago, biotechnology groups in Asia and the Middle East  approached the School of Pharmacy to establish a joint academic program with UNC-Chapel Hill.

"These are obviously people who want to get the best possible partners,” Thakker said.

So, they came knocking.

The School of Pharmacy has established itself near the top of its class. Its PharmD program to train professional pharmacists is ranked third in the nation by U.S News & World Report. Its research enterprise is ranked eighth in funding from the National Institutes of Health with $8.2 million in 2006. “Clearly, both of these groups were thinking ahead,” said Thakker. “They wanted to attract biotech companies, ‘pharma’ companies, and recognized that to be able to do that they would need academic research infrastructure.”

Since the first two countries pitched the idea, a third country, Singapore, has entered the mix of possible sites for the School’s first international presence.

At the leading edge of these negotiations has been Thakker. With his experience at navigating the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and his international background as an Indian immigrated to the United States, Thakker is the perfect diplomat. "He has been a very strong advocate of these opportunities as they have come toward us,” said the School’s dean, Robert Blouin, who has spearheaded the internationalization effort.

“I can always count on Dhiren to bring not only a very unique perspective, but a perspective that has the people of the School and North Carolina at heart.”

When the chance for an overseas collaboration arose, the School of Pharmacy actually faced a dilemma, Thakker said. They had just laid out a five-year plan with four initiatives, and internationalization was not one.

“When they approached us we actually had to do some serious soul searching,” Thakker said. “Do we get involved in this new initiative? Will it dilute us too much?”

“We actually came to the conclusion that we can’t afford not to respond to this,” he said. “What we do today is going to affect the School 10 years from now.”

The United States is beginning to face competition in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields from emerging “research powerhouses” in China, India, Korea, Singapore and Europe, said Thakker.

”We will be competing for students. We will be competing for faculty. We will be competing for employment opportunities for our graduates with all these people,” he explained. “And you can’t do that very effectively if you assume that you don’t really need to be involved [globally].”

Foreign-born residents populate 30 to 40 percent of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in the United States, Thakker estimated.

But, in recent years, the United States has tightened controls on immigration, making the climate less hospitable for foreign scholars to come do research, he said.

U.S. colleges and universities must overcome that obstacle to attract the best and brightest minds in the world, explained Dean Blouin: “We run the risk, if we choose not to partner, of losing access to a critical talent pool.”

That talent pool is choosing more often to stay home given the rise of local universities and the hurdles to studying in the United States, Thakker said.

“If we are seen as a school that is reaching out and inviting them to be our students, then I think we are at least competing with the local universities on their own ground,” he said.

So, Thakker and Dean Blouin have traversed the globe, investigating the opportunities in Asia and the Middle East, all the while carrying UNC’s banner, a school to which he has grown loyal in the last 11 years.

Thakker joined the faculty at the School of Pharmacy in 1996 after stints in research at the National Institutes of Health and in drug discovery at Glaxo Inc. (now GlaxoSmithKline).

“Dhiren is one of those rare individuals who came to us from industry,” said Blouin. “Usually the migration is the other way.”

“I had always had a strong relationship with the University and the School of Pharmacy,” Thakker said, “and I had always enjoyed training and teaching. So, I decided that may be I should really look at this as a career.”

Thakker has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Kansas and a master’s in pharmaceutical chemistry from Columbia University. He came to the United States after earning his undergraduate degree in pharmacy at Bombay University in Bombay, India (now Mumbai).

Just two years after coming to UNC, Thakker found himself thrust into a leadership role when the School created a new administrative position to guide the graduate and research programs.

“It was bad timing for me because I had not had time to establish myself in the academic setting,” Thakker recalled. “But, I learned in my life that things don’t always work on your time table.”

He overcame that and has been associate dean for almost ten years, making his presence known.

“When he came here and was asked to serve as associate dean, the job was much smaller,” said Blouin.

Under Thakker’s guidance, the School of Pharmacy’s research program has grown by 450 percent in the last four years, a period when funding from the National Institutes of Health has stayed level across the rest of the nation, said Blouin.

“Just that one part of the four-legged stool he is holding has grown tremendously,” Blouin added.

In addition, Thakker is a scientific founder and member of the board for Qualyst, Inc., a venture capital-backed business venture that spun out of his research on drug metabolism.

“I also saw that Drs. Brouwer and Pollack in the school had technologies that had similar potential,” Thakker said. So, they joined forces and, with help from the University’s Office of Technology Development, commercialized their product and set up operations in Raleigh.

“That company is still doing well,” he added, tapping his knuckles on his wooden desk.

Thakker maintains ties with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries through consulting, which he does outside of school.

“I feel like that is an important part of my job,” he said. ”It allows me to interact with the real world. It allows me to bring back relevant issues that I can plug into my research program and also use to inform my faculty.”

Sometimes Dhiren Thakker can’t help but wear all his hats at one time.

“Yeah, my life is full,” he admitted. “Sometimes I think too full. It stretches me a lot.”

Thakker will step down as associate dean for research and graduate education this spring; however, he doubts if this will necessarily give him a breather as he is not ready to slow down just yet.