Category: Divisions
Muscular Dystrophy Trial Using Xiao’s Gene Therapy Yields Surprise
October 6, 2010A clinical trial using a technique designed by Xiao Xiao, PhD, to treat the genetic defect that causes the most common form of muscular dystrophy has uncovered an unexpected aspect of the disease. The trial, based on therapy designed by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, discovered that some patients mount an immune response to a muscle-building protein they aren’t supposed to have. The puzzling result suggests that a number of muscular-dystrophy patients—who were once thought to be completely devoid of the protein dystrophin—have immune systems that are actually primed by the prior … Read more
Photos: New ECSU Pharmacy Complex
September 28, 2010Students enrolled in the UNC-Chapel Hill Doctor of Pharmacy Partnership program at Elizabeth City State University officially moved into their new academic home as a new $28 million Pharmacy Complex at the ECSU campus was unveiled on September 27, 2010. The 52,500-square-foot building, whose architecture was inspired by the idea of an apothecary chest, overlooks an artificial pond and contains classrooms and labs organized around a two-story atrium. The first floor contains general science labs, while the second floor houses the IV simulation lab, the compounding lab, a library, and community outreach facilities such as the drug information center. The … Read more
Scientists Receive Nanotechnology Grant to Fight Pancreatic Cancer
September 28, 2010A team of UNC scientists has received a five-year $2,308,800 grant from the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnerships to address the critical need for early diagnosis of and more effective treatments for pancreatic cancer. Wenbin Lin, PhD, professor of chemistry and pharmacy, and Jen Jen Yeh, MD, assistant professor of surgery, are the principal investigators. Leaf Huang, PhD, Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor and chair of molecular pharmaceutics in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is the co-investigator. All are members of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Lin is a faculty member in the UNC College of Arts … Read more
NCI Awards $13.6 Million to UNC Nanotech Center
September 24, 2010Leaf Huang, PhD, and Russ Mumper, PhD, of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are among the project managers who will benefit from a five-year, $13.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence based at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, for research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer through applying or using advances in nanotechnology. The grant will support the continued work of the center, which was launched in 2005 as part of NCI’s Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. The C-CCNE, one of … 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
Duke Scientist to Receive IPIT Public Service Award
September 13, 2010Allen Roses, MD, director of the Deane Drug Discovery Institute at the Duke University School of Medicine, will receive this year’s Award for Public Service from the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his leadership in advancing the field of pharmacogenomics through his work at GlaxoSmithKline and at Duke. “Because of pharmacogenomic studies and testing, adverse reactions to drugs can now be diagnosed without patients having to take the drug”, Roses says. This award is given annually to a person who has made significant contributions to the advancement of rational … 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
Photos: PharmD Orientation 2010
August 20, 2010Photos from orientation for the Class of 2014 on August 20 https://www.flickr.com//photos/uncpharmacy/sets/72157624766734238/show/
Cox Promoted to Assistant Dean
August 19, 2010Wendy Cox, PharmD, currently the director of student services at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been promoted to assistant dean of professional education. “This promotion is well deserved. Wendy Cox has done exceptional work as a member of the faculty and as director of student services,” says Robert A. Blouin, dean of the School. “This new position is critical to the success of the School as our professional education program continues to expand and evolve.” Cox is a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacy Practice and Experiential Education. During her tenure in student services, the School’s … Read more