UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Kim L. R. Brouwer, Pharm.D., Ph.D., was distinguished as Inventor of the Year during the 2019 UNC Celebration of Inventorship, on May 23.
During the celebration, the UNC Office of Technology Commercialization presents the Inventor of the Year Award to a UNC-Chapel Hill innovator in recognition of their contributions to inventions and patents. The award honors the recipient’s commitment to the University’s culture of encouraging innovation, disseminating knowledge and promoting entrepreneurship.
Brouwer is the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, associate dean for research and graduate education, and a professor in the curriculum in toxicology.
Brouwer received her B.S. in pharmacy from Oregon State University. She completed her Pharm.D. at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Pharmacy in conjunction with a pharmacy residency at the UK Medical Center and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences/pharmacokinetics. After postdoctoral training (pharmacology/drug metabolism) in the UK College of Medicine, she joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina in 1986, where she served as director of graduate studies for the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy from 1996 to 2004, and Chair of the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics from 2004-2015.
Brouwer directs an NIH-funded research program focused on hepatobiliary drug disposition and development and refinement of in vitro model systems to predict in vivo hepatobiliary disposition, drug interactions, and hepatotoxicity. She has mentored more than 104 undergraduate, professional, graduate and postdoctoral students and published more than 230 research papers, reviews and book chapters in addition to more than 240 published abstracts.
Brouwer is also a co-inventor of B-CLEAR® (U.S. Patent No. 6,780,580), an in vitro method to assess hepatic uptake, excretion, and biliary clearance that correlates with in vivo data. This technology has been exclusively licensed from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to Qualyst, Inc. Brouwer is a Qualystco-founder and former chair of the company’s scientific advisory board. Qualyst Transporter Solutions was acquired by BioIVT in August 2017.
She served as a member of the NIH Pharmacology Study Section from 1998 to 2002, and is a member of the editorial advisory boards for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, CPT Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology, Clinical and Translational Science, and the AAPS Journal. She was elected an AAPS Fellow in 1998, was recipient of the PHRMA Foundation Award in Excellence in Pharmaceutics in 2001, received the inaugural Pharmaceutical Sciences Outstanding Graduate Program Alumni Award and the Paul F. Parker Award from the University of Kentucky, and was the recipient of the 2018 ASCPT-FDA Abrams Award.
During the 2019 Celebration of Inventorship event, participants also heard from University leaders about Carolina’s focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. Inventors who received issued patents in the last year were also recognized.