Two Ph.D. candidates at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy recently received National Research Service Awards from the National Institutes of Health.
Jim Beaudoin, from the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, and Caleb Vogt, from the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, received the NRSA grants. Beaudoin is advised by Kim Brouwer, Pharm.D., Ph.D., and Vogt is advised by Jeff Aubé, Ph.D.
The NIH grant, known also as an F31, is awarded to promising predoctoral students so that they can obtain individualized, mentored research training while conducting dissertation research.
Beaudoin’s research project will investigate organic solute transporter α/β, a protein involved in the homeostasis of bile acids, and how it interacts with medications.
“The results of this proposed study will provide important information about the role of OSTα/β in human health and disease, especially in relation to drug-induced liver injury,” said Beaudoin. “We believe the results will provide novel insights regarding biomarker candidates of OSTα/β dysfunction, and novel therapeutic targets for bile acid-related disorders like obesity and diabetes.”
Beaudoin is a graduate of University College Utrecht in the Netherlands, and earned his M.S. in 2013 from the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam before coming to UNC in 2015. His research interests include pharmacogenomics, personalized drug therapy, drug toxicity and drug transport.
Vogt’s research project focuses on developing small molecules that simultaneously hit multiple drug targets to treat prostate cancer. Vogt will collaborate with Kenneth Pearce, Jr., Ph.D. at UNC and Emily Scott, Richard Auchus and William Rainey at the University of Michigan to design, synthesize, and evaluate new compounds for biological activity.
Vogt received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined the Aubé lab as a graduate student at the University of Kansas in 2014, and came to Chapel Hill when UNC hired Aubé in 2015.