Category: Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics
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
Mumper Appointed as Executive Associate Dean
June 8, 2010Russell Mumper, PhD, has assumed the role of the executive associate dean for academics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy effective June 1. 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. In this new position, he succeeds Gary Pollack, PhD, who has been named as the dean of the Washington State University College of Pharmacy. Mumper’s experience and success in both industry and in academia made him a natural for the job, says Dean Robert Blouin. “Russ has published more than 200 … Read more
2010 Awards Banquet
May 1, 2010The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy held its 2010 Awards Banquet on April 30 at the Carolina Club in Alumni Hall. Here is the list of award recipients. Student Academic Awards Student Activities Awards Teaching Awards Special Recognition Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Society Rho Chi National Honor Society STUDENT ACADEMIC AWARDS TEVA Outstanding Student Award Brian Murray This award, sponsored by TEVA Pharmaceuticals, is given to the graduating student who has excelled in the study of pharmacy. Facts and Comparisons Award for Excellence in Clinical Communications Jamie Lin Jurkiewicz This award, sponsored by Facts and Comparisons, is given in … Read more
Pollack to Be Dean at Washington State
March 18, 2010Gary Pollack, PhD, executive associate dean of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be the new dean of the Washington State University College of Pharmacy starting August 1. “I am absolutely delighted that Pollack has accepted our offer,” says Warwick Bayly, provost and executive vice president of WSU, in a news release. “He has an outstanding academic record and is a perfect fit when it comes to leading the pursuit of the College of Pharmacy’s and Washington State University’s strategic goals.” Pollack, who has been at UNC since 1984, is … 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
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
AAPS Honors Pollack with Manuscript Award
October 1, 2009A paper coauthored by Gary Pollack, PhD, has been selected by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists for the 2009 AAPS Pharmaceutical Research Meritorious Manuscript Award. The paper, “Kinetic Considerations for the Quantitative Assessment of Efflux Activity and Inhibition: Implications for Understanding and Predicting the Effects of Efflux Inhibition,” proposed a new way of analyzing data from experiments that examine how drugs move through the body. “In the old days, we used to believe drugs moved passively through the body, diffusing from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration,” Pollack says. “Now we know that proteins play an … Read more
Frye Leads UNC Team Selected for NCI Drug-Discovery Initiative
August 13, 2009A team of scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, and the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences will be working with the National Cancer Institute as part of a national effort to bring more targeted cancer therapies to patients as quickly as possible. The effort is led by Stephen Frye, PhD, a professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products and the director of the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Frye is also a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The … Read more
NIH Funds Xiao’s New Approach to Treating Muscular Dystrophy
July 29, 2009Xiao Xiao, PhD, the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor of Gene Therapy in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, has received a five-year grant worth up to $1.66 million from the National Institute of Arthritis and Muscoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the NIH to support his research into treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The grant will support Xiao’s project, “Myostatin Inhibition in DMD Dogs by Gene Transfer.” Muscular dystrophies are genetic diseases characterized by progressive muscle wasting. Duchenne muscular dystrophy occurs when a genetic mutation prevents the production of dystrophin, an essential muscle protein. Without this protein, individuals with DMD experience progressive … Read more
Mumper Study: Nanocapsules Can Overcome Chemotherapy Resistance
May 21, 2009One of the most challenging situations that oncologists face is when chemotherapy fails to slow down or stop the growth of cancer. This phenomenon, called multi-drug resistance, is the result of several simultaneous biochemical processes that scientists do not fully understand. New research led by pharmaceutical scientist Russell Mumper, PhD, director of the UNC Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, uses nanotechnology to overcome multi-drug resistance. Mumper’s team used an innovative formulation of lipid nanocapsules loaded with the anticancer drugs doxorubicin or paclitaxel to destroy cancer cells both in laboratory-based experiments … Read more