December 4, 2015
Katelyn Arnold, a Ph.D. student in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been awarded a $30,000 predoctoral U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention Global Fellowship.
The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention Global Fellowship program awards aims to advance new research contributing to innovative or updated quality standards for chemical and biological medicines, excipients, dietary supplements, herbal medicines, health-care quality and food ingredients.
Arnold graduated in May 2015 with a B.S. in Medicinal Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Dayton. She works in the lab of her adviser, McNeill Distinguished Professor Jian Liu, Ph.D., where she focuses on heparin molecular-weight reference standards used in heparin quality tests.
The goal of her research is to use methods developed in Liu’s laboratory to create a set of heparin oligosaccharide reference standards. They will then be used to examine the resolution and accuracy of the current test method. By using a standard that narrows the range of molecular weights measured, the goal is that a more accurate heparin quality test could be performed.
“The School in general always encourages us to apply for funding or for fellowships and grants,” Arnold said. “As I started here a few months ago, my intent during my graduate career was to hopefully get funding, and I was very fortunate that it happened early.”
She will travel to the USP headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, in December to meet with USP staff and review the proposed research plan. She will return next year to present her final research findings. Arnold said she is excited for the opportunities ahead as a Ph.D. candidate in the School.
“The faculty here is incredible with the level of expertise that is available to us as graduate students,” Arnold said. “Having these experts as mentors and to be able to talk and work with them is really awesome, and I have enjoyed all of it.”
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