Category: Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry
Photos: Commencement 2011
May 12, 2011The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy held its 2011 commencement on Saturday, May 7, at Memorial Hall. One hundred forty-four new doctors of pharmacy, four graduates of the MS in health-system program, and 22 recipients of the PhD in pharmaceutical sciences were honored. https://www.flickr.com//photos/uncpaa/sets/72157626692418218/show/ https://www.flickr.com//photos/uncpharmacy/sets/72157626736375652/show/
Heparin Expert Jian Liu Promoted to Professor
May 10, 2011Jian Liu, PhD, a faculty member at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy known for his pursuit of a synthetic version of the anticoagulant heparin, was promoted to the rank of professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products on May 1. “Dr. Liu has established a highly impressive and internationally recognized research program in the field of glycobiology during his tenure at UNC and has emerged as a leader in elucidating the mechanisms of heparan sulfate biosynthesis and function,” says Robert Blouin, PharmD, dean of the School and the Vaughn and Nancy Bryson Distinguished Professor. “The critical … Read more
Photos: 2011 Awards Ceremony
April 18, 2011The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy held its 2011 Awards Ceremony on April 17 at the Rizzo Center. The complete list of award recipients follows the slideshow below. Click on one of the links to jump to a specific section. https://www.flickr.com/photos/uncpharmacy/sets/72157626401321331/show/ Academic and Professional Awards TEVA Outstanding Student Award Amanda Misiewicz This award, sponsored by TEVA Pharmaceuticals, is given to the graduating student who has excelled in the study of pharmacy. T. R. Burgiss Family Award Jennifer Shealy Byrns This award is based on a student’s personal involvement in an intervention case that best illustrates the profession of pharmacy in … Read more
Roth Receives PhRMA Foundation Award in Excellence
March 24, 2011Bryan L. Roth, PhD, a professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, has received the PhRMA Foundation Award in Excellence in Pharmacology/Toxicology. The annual award honors researchers who received PhRMA Foundation grants early in their careers and then distinguished themselves through outstanding scientific and/or academic achievements. Roth will be presented with the award April 9 at a meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. “This award is wonderful for me and for my lab,” says Roth, who is the Michael J. Hooker Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the UNC School of Medicine and holds … Read more
Kohn Honored for His Efforts in Mentoring Junior Faculty
February 25, 2011Harold Kohn, PhD, a William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received one of two Faculty Mentoring Awards from the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council. The awards, which carry a $5,000 stipend, recognize outstanding faculty members who make extra efforts to guide, mentor, and lead students or junior faculty members as they make career decisions, embark on research challenges, and enrich their lives through public service, teaching and educational opportunities. Kohn received this year’s award for faculty-to-faculty mentoring, while the award for faculty-to-student mentoring went to Sandra Martin, PhD, associate dean for research in … Read more
Brouwer, Kohn Receive Grants from NC TraCS Institute
February 15, 2011School faculty members Kim Brouwer, PharmD, PhD, and Harold Kohn, PhD, have received $10,000 grants from the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute. Brouwer, a William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor and chair of the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, will use her grant for a project titled “Drug-Drug Interactions in the Liver: Effect of Ritonavir, a Transport Protein Modulator, on the Hepatic Exposure of 99m Technetium-Mebrofenin in Healthy Human Volunteers.” Kohn is the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products. His project is titled “A Tale of Two Antiepileptics: … Read more
Frye Awarded Two NCI Drug-Discovery Contracts
October 6, 2010As part of a national effort to accelerate the identification and testing of new anticancer drugs, SAIC-Frederick, Inc., a prime contractor to the National Cancer Institute has awarded two contracts totaling $2.4 million to two teams of UNC scientists to initiate the discovery of drugs for the treatment of childhood leukemia and brain tumors. Stephen Frye, PhD, professor of medicinal chemistry and director of the UNC Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is principal investigator. Frye is also a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The two centers are collaborating on … Read more
Synthetic Cofactor Is a Better Backbone for Synthetic Heparin
September 22, 2010Jian Liu, PhD, has taken another step forward in his quest for a synthetic version of the drug heparin by improving the process of building the drug molecule’s backbone using chemically modified cofactors instead of natural cofactors. Liu and colleagues at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy outline their procedure in the article “Chemoenzymatic Design of Heparan Sulfate Oligosaccharides” published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Liu is working to perfect Recomparin, a man-made heparin replacement that he has developed. “This is a milder, more efficient process,” Liu says. “It allows for a more precise structure that gives us a … Read more
Med Chem Students Earn CINF-FIZ Scholarships
September 7, 2010Rima Hajjo and Hao Tang, both graduate students in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, were granted this year’s CINF-FIZ Scholarship for Scientific Excellence. The German-American sponsored prize jointly awarded by FIZ CHEMIE and CINF, the Division of Chemical Information of the American Chemical Society, honors considerable contributions of graduate and postdoctoral students to the development of computer-supported chemical information sciences. The award is designed to advance computer-aided preparation and the use of chemical knowledge as well as to foster students’ involvement in CINF. This year’s winners of the CINF-FIZ Scholarship for Scientific Excellence were announced during the … Read more
PY2 Student Tackett Receives NC TraCS $2K grant
August 21, 2010Zach Tackett, a second-year doctor of pharmacy student at the School, has received a $2,000 grant from the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute to study a potential new drug target to help treat MRSA staph infections, which kill more people in the United States each year than AIDS. The award will fund a study of MdeA, an efflux pump in the cell membrane of Staphylococcus aureus, the bacterium that is the most common cause of staph infections. Efflux pumps are transporter proteins that pump toxic substances and antibiotics out of the cell. That function makes them key players in … Read more