Category: Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics
Removing a Brain Tumor Makes Remaining Cancer More Aggressive, UNC Study Finds
June 29, 2016Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seeking a better treatment for glioblastoma have discovered that removing a brain tumor causes any cancer left behind to grow 75 percent faster than the original tumor did, which helps to explain why this cancer is so lethal. “The thing that is deadly about this disease is that it diffusely invades the brain. Unlike tumors elsewhere in the body, you can’t cut it all out,” said Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D., a neuropathologist and an associate professor at the UNC School of Medicine and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer … Read more
Lei Miao Is First Recipient of Feng Liu Award
June 1, 2016Lei Miao, a graduate student in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, is the first recipient of the Feng Liu Graduate Student Award. Maio’s thesis topic is the “Role of Tumor Desmoplasia in Nanoparticle Delivery of Drugs and Genes.” She has had eleven papers published in scholarly journals with seven more in review and is co-holder of a patent for delivering drugs to tumor using nanoparticles coated with polylactic co-glycolic acid. Miao earned a B.S. in pharmaceutics from Shandong University in 2012. Her research interests include drug delivery and tumor microenvironment. Her adviser is Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor Leaf Huang, Ph.D. The Feng … Read more
Mucommune Is Newest Resident of UNC Eshelman Institute MicroIncubator
May 2, 2016Mucommune, LLC, is the fourth company spun out of the research enterprise at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to take up residence in the Eshelman Institute for Innovation MicroIncubator located at the School. Mucommune was born in 2015 from the work of Assistant Professor Sam Lai, Ph.D. Its core focus is the engineering of antibodies and biologics that have precisely tuned affinity to mucins, enabling them to work in tandem with protective mucus to facilitate the elimination of microbes at all mucosal surfaces, including those in the lung airways, GI tract, female reproductive tract and the eye. “Catalyzing the … Read more
Inaugural Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop Shares Discoveries in Nanomedicine
March 24, 2016From March 14 to 18, scientists from industry and academia converged on the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to learn about and to get hands-on experience with the latest advances in nanomedicine at the inaugural Carolina Nanoformulation Workshop. The workshop is a unique blend of classroom and hands-on training that stresses application and participation. It featured nearly two dozen speakers and two days of seminars for 17 participants followed by three days of practical experience in the laboratories of the School’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery. The goal of the CNW is to provide safe and effective solutions for … Read more
UNC Scientists First to Hunt Brain Cancer with Skin Cells Converted to Stem Cells
February 24, 2016Scientists at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are using the newest version of a Nobel Prize–winning technology for the first time to build cancer-killing stem cells that hunt down and mop up the remnants of invasive brain tumors, promising a new and more effective treatment for glioblastoma, a cancer with very low survival rates. “Glioblastoma patients desperately need something better, and we are trying to provide that with a better drug-delivery system,” said Shawn Hingtgen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School’s Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and a member of UNC Lineberger who led the research effort. With the … Read more
Elizabeth Gurysh Receives PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
February 4, 2016Elizabeth Gurysh, Ph.D., was awarded the pharmaceutics postdoctoral fellowship by the PhRMA Foundation, whose mission is to support young scientists in disciplines important to the pharmaceutical industry to encourage them to pursue careers in research and education related to drug discovery. The fellowship is a $40,000 per year stipend for two years to further develop and refine her research skills in pharmaceutics as a postdoctoral fellow. Pharmaceutics is the science of drug-delivery systems that emphasizes a quantitative understanding and use of the principles underlying drug delivery and drug transport. It is a multidisciplinary science with significant underpinnings from basic sciences … Read more
Jay Receives University Distinguished Teaching Award
January 27, 2016Michael Jay, Ph.D., Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor of Molecular Pharmaceutics, is the 2016 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award for Postbaccalaureate Instruction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jay will be recognized along with other recipients during a half-time ceremony at the men’s basketball game against the University of Pittsburgh on Sunday, February 14, in the Dean E. Smith Center. Jay joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in 2008. He served as director of graduate admissions for the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics until 2012, when he was named division chair. He recently served as the School’s executive vice … Read more
Batrakova Makes Cancer Drug 50 Times More Potent by Delivering It with Exosomes
January 14, 2016For the first time, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have packaged the cancer drug paclitaxel in exosomes — containers derived from a patient’s own immune system — to make it 50 times more potent against drug-resistant lung-cancer tumors. Elena Batrakova, Ph.D., and her colleagues at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery harvested tiny spheres called exosomes from macrophages, white blood cells that protect the body against infection. Exosomes carry chemical messages and are made of the same material as cell membranes. Diseases like cancer and AIDS propagate throughout the … Read more
Tojan Rahhal Receives 2015 Brewington Award as Most Outstanding Graduate Student
December 1, 2015Tojan Rahhal, a graduate student in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been awarded the School’s Kathryne A. Brewington Graduate Student Research Award. The Kathryne A. Brewington Graduate Student Research Award was created to honor the memory of Kathryne Brewington, who died in 1997 while pursuing her doctoral degree at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. In honor of Brewington’s commitment to public service and higher education, the award is given annually to the most outstanding doctoral student in the pharmaceutical sciences. The purpose of the award is to facilitate the research of … Read more
Professor Emeritus Hickey Receives AAPS Exemplary Researcher Award
December 1, 2015Anthony Hickey, Ph.D., professor emeritus in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, was presented the David J.W. Grant Research Achievement Award in Physical Pharmacy by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. The award, given at the annual meeting in Orlando, is presented every two years. “It’s an enormous and poignant honor for me because David Grant was a friend of mine when he was active in research,” Hickey said. “Over the years, he became a mentor to me. There is only one award named after David, and so for me, it’s very important. And … Read more