Category: Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry
Undergraduate in Singleton Lab to Present Research
April 26, 2007Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is an escalating healthcare concern. Hala Borno, an undergraduate student conducting research with Associate Professor Scott Singleton at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has produced promising results that could become the first step in a finding new solution to that problem. Borno, a junior chemistry major, will present her findings Friday, April 27, at 2:00 p.m. at the Eighth Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research at UNC-Chapel Hill. The event will be held at the Center for Dramatic Art from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. More than ninety students across campus disciplines will present their work. Borno is … Read more
Associate Professor Scott Singleton Receives Tenure
April 25, 2007The UNC School of Pharmacy has extended Associate Professor Scott Singleton’s appointment with tenure. Singleton, PhD, joined the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products in 2003 as a nontenure associate professor. Before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill, he was an assistant professor in Rice University’s Department of Chemistry and Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Singleton earned bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biology at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, and obtained his doctorate in organic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He did his postdoctoral fellowship at Penn State University. Singleton’s research focuses on the interface of … Read more
Raed Khashan Wins CCG Excellence Award
April 13, 2007Raed Khashan, a doctoral student at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has won a Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award from the American Chemical Society’s Division of Computers in Chemistry. Khashan, who is in the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, is one of five recipients for the award. He will receive $1,150 and a copy of CCG’s Molecular Operating Environment software with a one-year license. The winners will present their work at the ACS national meeting in Boston on August 21. Khashan, who obtained his master’s degree in pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin, entered the … Read more
Andrew Lee Promoted to Associate Professor
March 29, 2007The UNC School of Pharmacy has promoted Andrew Lee, PhD, to associate professor with tenure. Lee joined the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products as an assistant professor in March 2001. He also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the School of Medicine. He received his BA in chemistry from Pomona College in 1989 and his PhD in chemistry from the University of California Berkeley in 1996. Before coming to UNC, Lee was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and the State University of New York at Buffalo. Lee’s research … Read more
Faculty Letter Published in Science Magazine
October 11, 2006Science magazine recently published a letter written by Alan Kozikowski, Bryan Roth, and Alex Tropsha that argues in favor of developing academic drug discovery programs. Tropsha and Roth are faculty at the UNC School of Pharmacy, and Kozikowski is a professor at the University of Chicago. Please click “Why Academic Drug Discovery Makes Sense” to read the full text.
Sassano Selected as Amgen Fellow
August 23, 2006Maria “Flori” Sassano, a third-year graduate student in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, has been selected as the School’s 2006-2007 Amgen Fellow. Sassano’s research focuses on improving the side effects of Paclitaxel, a drug commonly used in the treatment of ovarian, metastatic breast, and advanced non-small-cell lung cancers, and in treating squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. “Paclitaxel presents high response rates for the treatment of these diseases, but its toxic side effects and poor solubility are major obstacles that need to be addressed and improved,” Sassano said. “My research focuses on the identification of a high-affinity aptamer that … Read more
Jian Liu Promoted to Associate Professor
August 8, 2006Jian Liu, PhD, who joined the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products in 2000, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. Liu’s research interests are centered in glycobiology, an area of science that holds tremendous significance for medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. Liu and his group’s work on the synthesis of polysaccharides has recently led to the successful production of a synthetic form of heparin. Liu believes that the chemical synthesis of polysaccharides will play a significant role in drug development in the future, particularly in the treatment of herpes, cancer, and bacterial infection, and he hopes his method will accelerate … Read more
Kohn Awarded $1.3 Million to Study Treatment of Neurological Disorders
June 14, 2006Harold Kohn, PhD, Kenan Professor in the UNC School of Pharmacy’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, has been awarded a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The title of Kohn’s project is “Novel Methods to Identify Targets of the Neurological Agent (R)-Lacosamide.” The NIH-funded study is a joint project between the Kohn and Rihe Liu Laboratories. Liu is an assistant professor at the School. According to Kohn’s proposal, epilepsy and neuropathic pain are major neurological disorders that can be treated with a number of different seizure medications. “Even with the use of these medications, many … Read more
Researcher Daniel Cline Receives NIH Kirschstein Award
June 7, 2006Daniel Cline, a postdoctoral research scientist in the Singleton Lab at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health. The Kirschstein NRSAs are individual postdoctoral fellowships given to promising applicants with the potential to become productive, independent investigators in fields related to the mission of the NIH constituent institutes and centers. “This post-doctoral appointment provides the opportunity to broaden my experience in molecular biology, with particular emphasis on drug design and delivery,” Cline says. “My overall goal is to become a well-rounded medicinal chemist and to develop useful therapies for treatment of infectious … Read more
Graduate Student Wins Impact Recognition Award
April 25, 2006Tim Wigle, a graduate student in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, has won a 2006 Impact Recognition Award. The awards, sponsored by the UNC Graduate Education Advancement Board, recognize graduate students whose research provides special benefits to the citizens of North Carolina. In 2004, tens of thousands of North Carolinians acquired antibiotic resistant infections that led to more than 1,000 unnecessary deaths and cost the state’s health care system nearly $1 billion. Wigle’s research, in the laboratory of Professor Scott Singleton, focuses on a bacterial protein called RecA, which may facilitate the development and spread of antibiotic … Read more