Category: Divisions
Elizabeth Gurysh Receives PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
February 4, 2016Elizabeth Gurysh, Ph.D., was awarded the pharmaceutics postdoctoral fellowship by the PhRMA Foundation, whose mission is to support young scientists in disciplines important to the pharmaceutical industry to encourage them to pursue careers in research and education related to drug discovery. The fellowship is a $40,000 per year stipend for two years to further develop and refine her research skills in pharmaceutics as a postdoctoral fellow. Pharmaceutics is the science of drug-delivery systems that emphasizes a quantitative understanding and use of the principles underlying drug delivery and drug transport. It is a multidisciplinary science with significant underpinnings from basic sciences … Read more
Jay Receives University Distinguished Teaching Award
January 27, 2016Michael Jay, Ph.D., Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor of Molecular Pharmaceutics, is the 2016 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award for Postbaccalaureate Instruction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jay will be recognized along with other recipients during a half-time ceremony at the men’s basketball game against the University of Pittsburgh on Sunday, February 14, in the Dean E. Smith Center. Jay joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in 2008. He served as director of graduate admissions for the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics until 2012, when he was named division chair. He recently served as the School’s executive vice … 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
Wendy Cox to Serve as Associate Dean For Curricular and Student Affairs
January 12, 2016Wendy Cox, Pharm.D., is the new associate dean for curricular and student affairs at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, moving from her role as assistant dean for professional education effective January 1. Cox is also a clinical associate professor in the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education. Cox’s new responsibilities include managing curricular issues, including the re-engineered Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum, and she will continue to oversee the Office of Student Affairs. She also serves as chair of the curricular transformation steering committee. Pam Joyner, Ed.D., M.S. Pharm., executive associate dean of professional education, said the new position … Read more
Nithya Srinivas receives ASCPT Presidential Trainee Award
January 7, 2016Nithya Srinivas, a Ph.D. student in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been awarded a 2016 Presidential Trainee Award through the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology Therapeutics. The award recognizes her abstract, “Antiretroviral Drug Exposure in Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) as a Predictor of Neurocognitive Outcomes in HIV Infected Patients,” and indicates it received a top score when compared to other project submitted by clinical pharmacologists in training. Srinivas graduated with her Bachelor of Science in pharmacy in 2014 in Bangalore, India, and is completing her Ph.D. under the guidance of Angela … Read more
Interprofessional Team to Have Case Study Published by Veterinary Association
December 18, 2015An interprofessional education team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University that includes two faculty members from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy will have a case study published in January on the websites of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges and the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research. When Kelly Scolaro, Pharm.D., an assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, came across the AAVMC One Health Case Competition, she considered it an opportunity to foster relationships within various health professions and universities. The team, which began working together in … Read more
Oral Chemotherapy Still Too Expensive Even after Doughnut Hole Closes, UNC Study Finds
December 7, 2015Simply closing the Medicare Part D doughnut hole will not be enough to increase cancer patients’ access to oral chemotherapy drugs, according to a new analysis from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The drugs are just too expensive at an average of more than $10,000 a month. “Closing the doughnut hole will save patients up to $2,550 for a typical course of therapy, but that doesn’t make much of a dent when they will still be paying on average more than $5,600 out of pocket annually for these oral chemotherapy drugs,” Stacie Dusetzina, Ph.D., said. “That’s more than the … Read more
Katelyn Arnold Receives USP Global Fellowship
December 4, 2015Katelyn Arnold, a Ph.D. student in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been awarded a $30,000 predoctoral U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention Global Fellowship. The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention Global Fellowship program awards aims to advance new research contributing to innovative or updated quality standards for chemical and biological medicines, excipients, dietary supplements, herbal medicines, health-care quality and food ingredients. Arnold graduated in May 2015 with a B.S. in Medicinal Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Dayton. She works in the lab of her adviser, McNeill Distinguished Professor Jian Liu, Ph.D., where she … Read more
Tojan Rahhal Receives 2015 Brewington Award as Most Outstanding Graduate Student
December 1, 2015Tojan Rahhal, a graduate student in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been awarded the School’s Kathryne A. Brewington Graduate Student Research Award. The Kathryne A. Brewington Graduate Student Research Award was created to honor the memory of Kathryne Brewington, who died in 1997 while pursuing her doctoral degree at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. In honor of Brewington’s commitment to public service and higher education, the award is given annually to the most outstanding doctoral student in the pharmaceutical sciences. The purpose of the award is to facilitate the research of … Read more
Professor Emeritus Hickey Receives AAPS Exemplary Researcher Award
December 1, 2015Anthony Hickey, Ph.D., professor emeritus in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, was presented the David J.W. Grant Research Achievement Award in Physical Pharmacy by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. The award, given at the annual meeting in Orlando, is presented every two years. “It’s an enormous and poignant honor for me because David Grant was a friend of mine when he was active in research,” Hickey said. “Over the years, he became a mentor to me. There is only one award named after David, and so for me, it’s very important. And … Read more