January 3, 2024
Erin Heinzen, Pharm.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics (DPET) at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been granted tenure. She also holds a joint appointment in the UNC Department of Genetics.
“Tenure is a great honor to receive. I am very thankful for the support of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine. I look forward to our continued successes,” Heinzen said.
Heinzen joined the School in 2020 from Columbia University where she previously served as deputy director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine and was the Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. She received her Pharm.D. (2001) and her Ph.D. (2004) in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then went on to postdoctoral training with Richard Mailman, Ph.D., in the UNC Department of Psychiatry and David Goldstein, Ph.D., at Duke University. Heinzen is a licensed pharmacist in North Carolina and New York.
Her lab focuses on the genetic and genomic basis of epilepsy disorders, including analyses of the role of germline mutations, somatic mutations and how regulation of the cellular transcriptome influences the risk and presentation of seizures.
The lab currently has active research projects seeking to identify and functionally-characterize disease-causing somatic mutations in patients with brain malformations and in patients who have drug-resistant non-lesional focal epilepsy. Heinzen also studies the transcriptome in brain tissue of epilepsy patients to better understand how regulation at this level may cause or contribute to the presentation of seizures.
“Dr. Heinzen has established a highly collaborative research program that uses a multifaceted approach to elucidate the genetic underpinnings of epilepsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders,” said Craig Lee, Pharm.D., Ph.D., chair of DPET and John A. and Deborah S. McNeill, Jr. Distinguished Professor. “Her laboratory is translating these discoveries into novel therapeutic approaches that offer enormous potential to improve the lives of patients with few therapeutic options. She is a wonderful colleague and mentor, and we are very fortunate to have her on our faculty.”
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