Category: Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry
K. H. Lee Honored with Named Professorship
May 14, 2008The Pharmacy Foundation of North Carolina has established an endowed professorship in honor of K. H. Lee, PhD, the long-time Kenan Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC School of Pharmacy. Alex Tropsha, PhD, the chair of the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, is the recipient of the $500,000 professorship. “Dr. Lee and Dr. Tropsha have both had a major impact on our research and graduate education programs,” says Bob Blouin, dean of the School. “This is a fitting way to recognize Dr. Lee for his impressive accomplishments and to reward Dr. Tropsha for the important contributions … Read more
Roth Receives Grant from NARSAD
April 29, 2008Bryan Roth, MD, PhD, a professor at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has received a Distinguished Investigators Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the largest donor-supported organization in the world that supports research on brain and behavior disorders. NARSAD awarded eleven Distinguished Investigators grants this year from a pool of 160 applicants. The one-year, $100,000 grants will support research with the greatest potential to lead the field forward in its understanding and treatment of serious mental illness. Roth is using new methodology recently invented in his lab to create mice with specially engineered characteristics, with … Read more
Juliano to Oversee School’s Research and Graduate Education
April 25, 2008The UNC School of Pharmacy has named Rudy Juliano, PhD, an expert in drug targeting, as its new associate dean for research and graduate education. Juliano fills the vacancy left by Dhiren Thakker, PhD, who stepped down to pursue other projects at the School. Before coming to the School, Juliano was the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the UNC School of Medicine, where he served as department chair from 1987 to 2002. In his new position, Juliano will oversee the School’s research and graduate education programs. One key component of his responsibilities will be … Read more
Lee Receives NIH Grant for Collaboration with Singleton
April 8, 2008Andrew Lee, PhD, an associate professor at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for a collaboration with fellow School faculty Scott Singleton, PhD, to study at how protein motions affect function and inhibition in the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase. The grant is titled “Intra- and Intermolecular Dynamics of Dihydrofolate Reductase” and is worth more than $1 million over four years. “Proteins are dynamic molecules, and this aspect often contributes to their function in binding ligands and catalyzing reactions,” Lee says. “However, the traditional methods used to determine molecular structures don’t directly report … Read more
2008 Graduate Student Awards
January 27, 2008The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy held its Graduate Achievement Banquet on January 26. UNC-CH Graduate School Scholarships Two first-year doctoral students from the School were recipients of merit assistantships. The UNC Graduate School awards merit assistantships to promising incoming graduate students, with the objective of maintaining and increasing the quality of graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill. The School’s recipients are: Beth Vasiveich, Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics Christina Won, Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics The UNC Graduate School also awards a few competitive merit fellowships each year to incoming graduate students with exceptional potential. The Royster Society of Fellows … Read more
Former GSK Exec to Lead UNC Drug Discovery Center
October 12, 2007Stephen Frye, PhD, former worldwide head of discovery, medicinal chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, will lead the new Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “The days when large pharmaceutical companies could be solely relied on to effectively translate basic research into new medicines are passing,” Frye said. “Academic science will have to rise to the challenge.” Frye is co-inventor of GSK’s Avodart, a drug used to shrink an enlarged prostate gland that is also under study for prevention of prostate cancer. Prior to his most recent role at GSK, his department … Read more
J. Liu Creates New Form of Synthetic Heparin
September 21, 2007Researchers at the UNC School of Pharmacy have patented a synthetic version of the drug heparin, called Recomparin, that is less complex chemically and should be easier to produce than previous forms. Led by Jian Liu, PhD, scientists in the UNC School of Pharmacy discovered that they could remove a complex element from the heparin molecule without altering the drug’s function. The component, a single sugar called iduronic acid, is difficult to replicate and was long thought to be an important contributor to heparin’s function as an anticoagulant, Liu says. “We proved we don’t really need that structure for the … Read more
Chemical Biology Expert David Lawrence Joins School Faculty
September 7, 2007David Lawrence, PhD, a leading expert in the field of chemical biology, has joined the faculty of the UNC School of Pharmacy. Before joining the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, Lawrence spent eleven years as a professor of biochemistry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York. Before that, he was at the State University of New York at Buffalo for ten years. He received his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. The School of Pharmacy collaborated with the Department of Chemistry, the School of Medicine, and the Lineberger Comprehensive … Read more
Jarstfer Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure
August 6, 2007The UNC School of Pharmacy has promoted Michael Jarstfer, PhD, to associate professor with tenure. He joined the School in 2001 as an assistant professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products. Before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill, Jarstfer was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado. He earned his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Utah and his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Jarstfer’s research focuses on the enzyme telomerase, which keeps cellular DNA from degrading during replication. He currently has more than $210,000 annually in funding from the National … Read more
Morieux Awarded NIH Predoctoral Fellowship
June 20, 2007Pierre Morieux, a graduate student in the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, has been awarded an NIH Predococtoral Fellowship. Morieux’s project, “Chemical Probes to Discover the Lacosamide Drug Targets: Synthesis and Evaluation,” was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for up to three years at $27,000 a year. “These awards are highly competitive, and it is a real honor for Pierre and the School to receive this fellowship,” says Harold Kohn, the Kenan Chair in Medicinal Chemistry.