Category: Centers
Inaugural Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop Shares Discoveries in Nanomedicine
March 24, 2016From March 14 to 18, scientists from industry and academia converged on the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to learn about and to get hands-on experience with the latest advances in nanomedicine at the inaugural Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop. The workshop is a unique blend of classroom and hands-on training that stresses application and participation. It featured nearly two dozen speakers and two days of seminars for 17 participants followed by three days of practical experience in the laboratories of the School’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery. The goal of the CNW is to provide safe and effective solutions for … Read more
New Kinase Inhibitor Effective against Drug-Resistant Leukemia, Preclinical Study Finds
March 21, 2016A novel compound developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has shown promise in preclinical studies as a treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, more than doubling median days of survival even in a drug-resistant form of the disease. Researchers at UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Center in Atlanta, Emory University School of Medicine and other institutions report that the investigational compound MRX-2843 blocked the growth of acute myeloid leukemia cells, led to a significant level of cancer cell death and more than doubled the median days … Read more
Jon Easter Joins School as Director of CMOPP
March 7, 2016Jon Easter has joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as the director of the Center for Medication Optimization through Practice and Policy and a professor of the practice. The center, which is embedded within the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education and launched in April 2015, seeks to solidify the role of pharmacy practice within value-based health care payment and care-delivery models by building a hub to support internal and external collaboration, research and education. Easter said CMOPP will develop a robust, real-world-practice research capability by securing a variety of grants, facilitate strategic collaborations with interdisciplinary partners to … Read more
Using New Screening Tool, UNC Researchers Identify Potential Treatments for Ewing Sarcoma
March 1, 2016In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered and applied a new screening technique capable of testing thousands of potential drug compounds to see if those compounds can reverse the abnormal DNA unwinding that marks a pediatric bone cancer known as Ewing sarcoma. Ewing sarcoma is a bone and soft tissue cancer that is most common in teens and young adults. In the sarcoma, DNA is unwound abnormally from a condensed, compact state, leaving gaps in the genetic code. With key sections of the code left open, certain genes are turned on … Read more
Batrakova Makes Cancer Drug 50 Times More Potent by Delivering It with Exosomes
January 14, 2016For the first time, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have packaged the cancer drug paclitaxel in exosomes — containers derived from a patient’s own immune system — to make it 50 times more potent against drug-resistant lung-cancer tumors. Elena Batrakova, Ph.D., and her colleagues at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery harvested tiny spheres called exosomes from macrophages, white blood cells that protect the body against infection. Exosomes carry chemical messages and are made of the same material as cell membranes. Diseases like cancer and AIDS propagate throughout the … Read more
NIH Funds CNDD Proposal to Develop New Stroke Treatment
October 7, 2015Researchers in the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have received a translational NIH grant worth $783,000 over two years to develop a way to deliver to the brain a protein capable of repairing some of the damage caused by stroke. The grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke will fund the CNDD’s efforts to design a new nanoparticle delivery system capable of transporting a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor to the brain and central nervous system. BDNF is a protein that supports the survival of and growth of certain … Read more
UNC Pharmacy Is Newest Member of International Structural Genomics Consortium
September 15, 2015The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy is the first U.S. hub of a worldwide research network dedicated to defining the structure of proteins and freely sharing its discoveries with the scientific community to drive the development of new therapeutics. UNC joins Oxford University, the University of Toronto, and the State University of Campinas in São Paulo, Brazil, as a core laboratory of the Structural Genomics Consortium, an international, not-for-profit, public-private partnership that carries out basic science in drug discovery and makes its research output available to the scientific community with no strings attached. “The SGC identifies new drug discovery targets … Read more
UNC Researchers Awarded $11.3 Million for Cancer Nanotechnology Research
September 14, 2015University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers received an $11.3 million, five-year grant to conduct multiple studies exploring the use of nanoparticles to create cancer vaccines and improve cancer drug delivery and responses. The grant is the third in a series of awards that the university has received from the National Cancer Institute for cancer nanotechnology research. It will fund work by researchers with the Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, an NCI-funded collaboration between UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. “UNC-Chapel Hill has emerged as a leader in nanotechnology in the last 10 years,” said … Read more
Smart Cells Teach Neurons Damaged by Parkinson’s to Heal Themselves
September 8, 2015As a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have created smarter immune cells that produce and deliver a neuron-healing protein to the brain while also teaching nerve cells to begin making the protein for themselves. Associate Professor Elena Batrakova, Ph.D., and her team at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery genetically modified white blood cells called macrophages to produce glial cell–derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF, and deliver it to the brain. Glial cells provide support and protection for nerve cells throughout the brain and body, … Read more
$2.4 Million NIH Grant to Support Study of Tumor Penetration by Nanogel
August 10, 2015UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy nanomedicine researchers received a five-year grant to study whether the properties of certain nanomaterials would improve the delivery of cancer treatments to their tumor targets. The $2.42 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund a collaborative research effort between scientists at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as well as at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The researchers plan to study whether the use of a drug-carrying nanoparticle material they’ve designed called the core-shell nanogel can better penetrate tumors. “The whole idea of this … Read more