Category: Divisions
NIAID Grant Launches Kashuba’s Plan for HIV-Prevention Trials
December 18, 2009Development of an AIDS vaccine is struggling. Topical treatments aimed at stopping HIV have made little progress. Angela Kashuba, PharmD, believes that antiretroviral drugs are the best hope for halting the spread of AIDS, especially in the developing world. “I and the scientists I work with believe antiretrovirals are probably the most rational approach for preventing HIV infection,” she says. “We think they are going to be the key for stemming the epidemic of HIV.” Kashuba is an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and director of the Clinical Pharmacology and Analytical Chemistry Core of the UNC … Read more
Gal, Koval Receive Grants for Second Life Projects
December 10, 2009Peter Gal, PharmD, and Pete Koval, PharmD, faculty members in the Division of Pharmacy Practice and Experiential Education, have received Lenovo Innovation Grants from the UNC Center for Faculty Excellence to develop projects in Second Life to help students in real life. Gal, a clinical professor, will use his $9,900 grant to create an orientation program on the virtual-reality social network to familiarize fourth-year doctor of pharmacy students with clinical practice in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before they begin that portion of their practice-experience curriculum. Gal oversees the neonatal pharmacotherapy fellowship at the NICU at The Women’s Hospital of … Read more
ASCO President Richard Schilsky Receives UNC IPIT Clinical-Service Award
November 16, 2009Selecting the best treatment based on the unique features of a particular patient is the goal of personalizing cancer care, says Richard Schilsky, MD, this year’s recipient of the Award for Clinical Service from the UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “We are moving into the frontier of personalized medicine and are treating patients not just by the site of their tumor but by the genetic composition of their disease and of their normal DNA,” Schilsky told the U.S. House of Representatives in March, “This enables us to determine which … Read more
Mumper Named AAPS Fellow
November 9, 2009The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists has named Russell Mumper, PhD, one of its 2009 fellows. The honor recognizes individuals who have made sustained, remarkable scholarly and research contributions to the pharmaceutical sciences, such as original articles, scientific presentations at AAPS Annual Meetings, and patents. Mumper is the John A. McNeill Distinguished Professor in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and director of the School’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery. His research on the creation of drug-, gene-, and vaccine-delivery systems has led to several first-in-human studies in the past twenty years. His current research focuses on nanoparticle-based systems to … Read more
McLeod featured in University marketing campaign
November 9, 2009Howard McLeod, PharmD, Fred Eshelman Distinguish Professor and director of the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individiualized Therapy, is featured in the first television commercial produced as part of the University’s privately funded One campaign. The ad has been running at football and basketball games and on television during the games. Its purpose is to show how just one person at UNC can improve the lives of hundreds or thousands of other people. McLeod’s specialty is pharmacogenomics, the science of matching medicines to the unique genetic makeup of a patient, or as McLeod say, “getting the right drug to the right person … Read more
Koval, Thrasher Named to Specialty Council
November 4, 2009Two clinical associate professors at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy will serve on a new Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties council to develop a certification for ambulatory-care pharmacy specialists. Peter Koval, PharmD, and Kim Thrasher, PharmD, are both board certified pharmacotherapy specialists and faculty members in the School’s Division of Pharmacy Practice and Experiential Education. Koval is also the associate director of pharmacotherapy at the Greensboro Area Health Education Center, while Thrasher serves the same role at the South East AHEC. The BPS is an independent certification agency of the American Pharmacists Association that recognizes specialties and certifies pharmacists in … Read more
Roth study points to new uses, unexpected side effects of already-existing drugs
November 4, 2009Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California, San Francisco, have developed and experimentally tested a technique to predict new target diseases for existing drugs. The researchers developed a computational method that compares how similar the structures of all known drugs are to the naturally occurring binding partners — known as ligands — of disease targets within the cell. In a study published this week in Nature, the scientists showed that the method predicts potential new uses as well as unexpected side effects of approved drugs. “This approach uncovered interactions between drugs and … Read more
Former FDA commissioner Mark McClellan to receive UNC IPIT public-service award
November 3, 2009The best way to advance personalized medicine is by encouraging patient choice and practicing evidence-based medicine, says Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, this year’s recipient of the Award for Public Service from the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. This annual award from the institute honors a person who has made significant contribution to the advancement of rational drug-therapy initiatives across society. The award acknowledges McClellan’s advocacy of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine throughout his career. Currently the director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, he has also served … Read more
DeSimone to Receive North Carolina’s Highest Civilian Honor
October 28, 2009Joseph DeSimone, PhD, a professor in department of chemistry and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, will receive the North Carolina Award, the highest civilian honor in the state, on October 29. DeSimone is the Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences and holds a joint appointment in the School’s Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics. His research focuses on nanomedicine and drug delivery. He has developed techniques for mass-producing custom-made micro- and nanoparticles tailored to have specific sizes, shapes and surface properties. That technology, known as PRINT (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates), is exclusively licensed to … Read more
Lee Study: Pruning Protein Decreases Binding Affinity without Changing Structure
October 15, 2009A research team led by Andrew Lee, PhD, has demonstrated that a protein’s function can be changed without modifying its structure, creating a new comprehension of how proteins bind to each other and to drugs. “This is a fundamental change in the way we understand the simple act of binding, which is important not only for biology but for drug development.” says Lee, a professor in the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products. “This mechanism has never been seen before in single protein domains whose job it is to simply bind something. It is a nice, clear example … Read more