July 19, 2006
Howard McLeod, PharmD, formerly of Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the UNC School of Pharmacy. He is also the director of the new UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy and a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Dr. McLeod is one of the pioneers in the field of cancer pharmacogenomics and we are extremely pleased that he has decided to join the faculty,” said Kim Brouwer, PharmD, chair of the division.
Richard Goldberg, MD, associate director of UNC Lineberger, said, “We are very excited to welcome Dr. McLeod to the UNC community. He and his team of scientists are conducting innovative work in the emerging field of personalized medicine. The intellectual environment at UNC and the investment that the University and state of North Carolina are making in this area of inquiry will enable his practical application of this field to clinical patient care.”
McLeod is an internationally recognized expert in the pharmacogenomic analysis of cancer therapeutics. He is the author or co-author of more than 260 peer-reviewed papers, serves on the editorial board of seven scientific journals, and has given three hundred presentations in fourteen countries. He is a member of the Food and Drug Administration Subcommittee on Clinical Pharmacology and is vice chair of the NIH Cancer and Leukemia Group B Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Committee.
“Dr. McLeod will interface immediately with a number of research groups within the Schools of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Public Health; with many other units across campus, and with regional partners across the state,” Brouwer said.
“His vision for the field of pharmacogenomics is global and will be high impact for the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, the School of Pharmacy, the University, and most importantly, for the people of North Carolina, whom we serve.”
McLeod completed research fellowship training in cancer pharmacology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and at the University of Glasgow in Scotland before becoming the director of the clinical pharmacology program at the Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow. He then became a senior lecturer in medicine and director of laboratory research for the oncology unit at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. McLeod returned to the United States in 2000 to accept a position at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was a professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pharmacology and Molecular Biology, and Genetics and director of the Siteman Cancer Center Pharmacology Core.
The Eshelman professorships were created as part of the historic $20 million gift made by Fred Eshelman (’72 BSPhar) to the UNC School of Pharmacy in 2003, which was the third largest gift ever received by the University. Eshelman is the School’s leading benefactor and is founder and chief executive officer of PPD, a leading global contract research organization providing development services, market development expertise, and compound partnering programs to the pharmaceutical industry. PPD is based in Wilmington. Eshelman has created four $1 million endowed professorships at the UNC School of Pharmacy.
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