Category: Divisions
DPET Student Yan Receives Travel Award
November 10, 2008Grace Yan, a graduate student at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received a travel award from the Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics and Drug Metabolism Section of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. The $750 award will help cover travel and lodging expenses for the 2008 AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 16-20. Yan and other travel award winners will also be recognized at the PDDM Section Membership Meeting on November 18. Yan is in the lab of Kim Brouwer, PhD, the chair of the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. She entered the School’s PhD program … Read more
IPIT Announces Patient-Safety Award Honoree
November 10, 2008Medication errors kill thousands of people each year in the United States, says Michael Cohen, a pharmacist and patient safety advocate who is this year’s recipient of the UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy Award for Patient Service. Cohen is the founder and president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. Recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the one hundred most powerful people in health care, Cohen has committed his professional career to reducing preventable drug and drug-delivery mistakes. “Through his work with the ISMP and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Cohen has played key roles … Read more
Zhang Receives Amgen Fellowship
November 7, 2008The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy has awarded its 2008-09 Amgen Fellowship to Liying Zhang, a graduate student in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products. Zhang, who is in division chair Alex Tropsha’s lab, will receive a $22,500 stipend, health insurance, tuition, and travel allowance for presentation of results. She plans to use the fellowship to conduct chemical informatics studies on drug disposition data. Zhang entered the School’s graduate program in 2006 after earning her bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. The fellowship selection was made by the School’s Graduate Education Committee, which evaluated … Read more
Kashuba Receives ASCPT Goldberg Award
November 5, 2008Angela Kashuba, PharmD, will receive the 2009 Leon I. Goldberg Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The award was established in 1986 to honor a young scientist for accomplishments in the field of clinical pharmacology achieved early in his/her career. The goal of the Leon I. Goldberg Young Investigator Award is to encourage and recognize young scientists active in the field of clinical pharmacology. Kashuba has made significant contributions regarding the clinical pharmacology of antiretroviral agents used in the treatment of HIV infection. During her ten years at UNC, she has published more than … Read more
IPIT honors Dr. Mark Ratain for unlocking the promise of gene-guided cancer therapy
October 24, 2008University of Chicago professor Mark J. Ratain, MD, is this year’s recipient of the Award for Clinical Service presented by the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The award honors a person who has made significant contributions to the advancement of individualized therapy in clinical practice. “Dr. Ratain’s work with the University of Chicago has shown us a clear model for understanding how anticancer drugs work in real patients,” said Howard McLeod, PharmD, director of IPIT. “The ultimate goal of Dr. Ratain’s research is to help tailor medicines to a person’s … Read more
K.H. Lee Receives ASP Research Achievement Award
October 20, 2008K. H. Lee, PhD, the Kenan Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been named the recipient of the 2009 Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award from the American Society of Pharmacognosy. Lee was chosen from a pool of highly qualified candidates for his career accomplishments and his many contributions to the field of natural products. He will make an award address on June 30, 2009, during the 50th Annual Meeting of the ASP in Honolulu, Hawaii. “Few researchers can match what Dr. Lee has done over the course of his long and distinguished career,” … Read more
Xiao Leads New UNC Wellstone Center Project
October 8, 2008The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been awarded a five-year, $7 million grant to establish a muscular dystrophy research center named in honor of the late Sen. Paul D. Wellstone of Minnesota, who earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at UNC. The new Senator Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center at UNC joins a list of six existing Wellstone Centers that have been established by the National Institutes of Health. Wellstone was an advocate for muscular dystrophy issues in Congress before he was killed in a plane crash in 2002. The center will pursue three … Read more
Motsinger-Reif Appointed to IPIT
September 25, 2008Alison Motsinger-Reif, PhD, has been named to the UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the development and applications of computational methodology to detect complex genetic and environmental models that predict a clinical outcome. She holds a PhD in human genetics from Vanderbilt University and has more than forty scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals to her credit. Motsinger-Reif is an assistant professor in the Bioinformatics Research Center at North Carolina State University and an adjunct assistant professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The UNC … Read more
WHO Leader to Receive UNC IPIT Public Service Award
September 25, 2008Access to essential medicines is part of the fulfillment of the right to health, says Hans Hogerzeil, PhD, a World Health Organization leader who will speak on the subject next week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hogerzeil, director of essential medicines and pharmaceutical policies at WHO, is this year’s recipient of the UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy Award for Public Service. He will receive the award and present a seminar at UNC on Oct. 2 at 2:00 p.m. in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium in the Global Education Building on the Chapel Hill campus. “Dr. … Read more
Zhang Receives $125K Grant from Pardee Foundation
September 15, 2008Qisheng Zhang, an assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received a one-year, $125,000 grant from the Elsa U. Pardee Foundation for a research project aimed at finding novel candidates for breast cancer treatments. Zhang, a member of the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, will use the grant to develop small molecule ASAP1 inhibitors. ASAP1 is one member of the GTPase-activating proteins of ADP-ribosylation factors, which regulate a number of biological processes in mammals. Increased amount of ASAP1 has been found in breast cancer cells, making this protein a potential novel target for cancer … Read more