Category: Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics
UNC Nanomedicine Researchers Uncover High Potential for Low-Frequency Magnetic Fields
November 16, 2012A team of researchers led by scientists at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy has discovered effects of low-frequency magnetic fields that might pave the way for new approaches to designing remote-control nanomedicines. In a paper published online October 18 in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the researchers describe an experiment in which they attached an enzyme to magnetic nanoparticles, exposed them to nonheating, low-frequency magnetic fields, and observed the resulting changes in the enzymes’ structure, conformation, and catalytic activity, which were different from changes induced by heating up the nanoparticles. The results demonstrated for the first time magneto-mechanical effects triggered … Read more
Pharmaceutical Startups Picked for Investors Showcase
November 1, 2012Qualiber Inc. and Capture Pharmaceuticals, two pharmaceutical startup companies founded by faculty members at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, have been invited to present in the University Startups Showcase. The event will connect the best university startup companies, as nominated by the country’s major research universities, to leading venture capitalists, angel investors, strategic investors, and SBIR program managers. Qualiber was founded in 2010 by Leaf Huang, PhD, a Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor in the School’s Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics. The company aims to develop a drug-delivery system based on one of Huang’s inventions—a nanoparticle that contains a drug stored … Read more
PhD Student in Molecular Pharmaceutics Wins Brewington Award
October 31, 2012James Byrne, a PhD student at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is the 2012 recipient of the School’s Kathryne A. Brewington Graduate Student Research Award. The award is given annually to the top student in the School’s PhD in pharmaceutical sciences program. The winner receives a plaque and a $1,500 research grant that can be used to fund research, travel to another institution to develop new research skills, or attend a national scientific meeting where the student will present his or her dissertation work. Byrne will use his Brewington grant to support device-efficacy studies in a novel mouse model … Read more
Kabanov Leads Nanomedicine Team from Nebraska to UNC Pharmacy
October 4, 2012A group of twenty researchers from the University of Nebraska moved halfway across the country this summer to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to join the Center for Nanotechnology and Drug Delivery in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Led by Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov, PhD, who will direct the center, the group comprises Elena Batrakova, PhD, and a team of eighteen that includes three research faculty, postdoctoral fellows, research managers, and technicians, along with five graduate students who transferred to Carolina to continue their education. Kabanov’s group brings to UNC a research program that will receive more … Read more
Lai Receives NSF Award to Support Mucus Research, Science Education Outreach
May 3, 2012Assistant professor Sam Lai, PhD, is teaming up with mathematicians and science educators to tackle a sticky subject. Lai has received a Career Award from the National Science Foundation, the NSF’s most prestigious award for the development of junior faculty. The five-year, $400,000 award will support his research into stopping pathogens in the body’s mucous membranes. He will also be part of several educational efforts, including working with a precollege science-education program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to develop a curriculum to teach middle and high school students about the health functions of mucus. Most infections … Read more
Mike Jay to Chair Molecular Pharmaceutics
April 1, 2012Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor Michael “Mike” Jay, PhD, will succeed Leaf Huang, PhD, as the new chair of the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as of April 1. Huang, who is also an Eshelman professor, has been chair of the division since coming to the School in 2005 from the University of Pittsburgh. “Professor Jay is very highly regarded in the fields of pharmaceutics, drug delivery, and radiopharmaceutics. He also brings considerable administrative experience having directed a unique FDA-registered university-based pharmaceutical manufacturing facility for nine years,” says Bob Blouin, dean of the pharmacy school. … Read more
School to Increase Graduate Student Stipends
March 19, 2012Graduate students at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy will have their stipends increased nearly 20 percent over the next two years, raising the amount they receive from $23,000 per year to $27,500. The stipend will grow over two years with $2,500 added in fall 2012 and $2,000 added in fall 2013. The increase will affect all doctoral candidates recruited directly into the graduate program in pharmaceutical sciences and will serve as the new base amount of support offered by the School. Graduate students receive stipends as compensation for teaching, research duties, or other comparable academic responsibilities. “We have devoted … Read more
Ming Receives Grant to Study Therapy for Renal Fibrosis
November 28, 2011Xin Ming, PhD, a research assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received an NC TraC$50K Pilot Grant from the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute to support his research on using targeted siRNA therapy to treat renal fibrosis. The one-year grant will provide $50,000 to support Ming’s study of a therapy targeting αvβ6 integrin receptors that play a crucial role in fibrogenesis, the formation of scar tissues in an organ. Ming, a faculty member in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, will use this study to generate preliminary data to apply for an R01 grant from … Read more
UNC Gets $100,000 Grant to Commercialize Huang, Kohn Inventions
September 30, 2011The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received $100,000 from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to advance the commercial development of technologies created by UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy scientists Leaf Huang, PhD, and Hal Kohn, PhD. Technology transfer officials at three University of North Carolina System campuses are dividing $250,000 to advance the commercial development of discoveries made at their universities. Technology Enhancement Grants of $50,000 each will support the advancement of five inventions with significant market potential. At UNC-Chapel Hill, Henry Nowack and Jackie Quay, PhD, both assistant directors of the Office of Technology Development, are recipients … Read more
Photos: Commencement 2011
May 12, 2011The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy held its 2011 commencement on Saturday, May 7, at Memorial Hall. One hundred forty-four new doctors of pharmacy, four graduates of the MS in health-system program, and 22 recipients of the PhD in pharmaceutical sciences were honored. https://www.flickr.com//photos/uncpaa/sets/72157626692418218/show/ https://www.flickr.com//photos/uncpharmacy/sets/72157626736375652/show/