Category: Eshelman Institute for Innovation
New health tech platform to help fight the opioid crisis
December 6, 2023The Eshelman Institute for Innovation (EII), within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is set to launch a new health tech platform aimed at serving patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). The platform, dubbed Goldie, is a case management tool for community paramedics and peer support specialists serving patients with OUD. EII has chosen coastal Carteret County to be one of the first locations to pilot Goldie. “We are excited to pilot our Goldie digital health solution in Carteret County. We believe the county represents the patient needs well of those suffering with opioid use disorder in Eastern North Carolina,” … Read more
Eshelman Institute for Innovation establishes research collaboration with Aston University
August 1, 2023As part of a new collaboration, the Eshelman Institute for Innovation (EII), within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, will work with Aston University in the U.K. on a three-year project focused on preventing damage caused by swelling of the central nervous system (CNS). The EII was established in 2014 with a $100 million commitment from Fred Eshelman, Pharm.D, and provides translational grant funding to Carolina faculty for therapeutic research focused on oncology, infectious disease, and neuroscience (including rare diseases); however, the EII welcomes ideas for devices and diagnostics, and other therapeutic areas and services. Through their grant mechanism, the … Read more
Brain slice technology opens the door for personalized cancer treatment
May 15, 2023In a full-circle moment, brain cancer survivor Andrew Satterlee, Ph.D. is one step closer to helping brain cancer patients receive the personalized treatment they need. Satterlee, research assistant professor and associate director of the Brain Slice Technology Platform at the Eshelman Institute for Innovation within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and his team have been researching a new way to help doctors treating patients with brain cancer make personalized decisions about the drugs they give each patient. “When I was in college, I had brain surgery to remove my tumor, but there was a disagreement on what my chemotherapy … Read more
Eshelman Institute for Innovation partners with the HBCU Founders Initiative to serve underrepresented populations
February 13, 2023The Eshelman Institute for Innovation, within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is partnering with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Founders Initiative (HBCUFI) to create PowerUp, a program that will identify and support innovators as they try to solve health equity challenges in underrepresented communities across North Carolina. PowerUp aims to connect top talent with investment and advisory support to launch innovative digital health startups that will provide health care solutions to communities. The key partner in this program, the HBCU Founders Initiative, is a non-profit organization that supports HBCU students, alumni and faculty along their entrepreneurial journey. The … Read more
Start-Up Initiative Tackles State’s Opioid Crisis
January 23, 2023Written by: Meg Ostrom The Eshelman Institute for Innovation, within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, launched the First in Venture Studio (FVS) to partner with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in exploring how digital health innovation can improve health care. With a mission to create new digital solutions through research, ideation and commercialization, the FVS is now poised to launch its first start-up focused on solving addiction care and recovery issues at the heart of the state’s opioid crisis. Building a broad coalition of Asheville-based health systems, providers, pharmacists, emergency management, criminal justice, non-profits and civic … Read more
Eshelman Institute for Innovation announces 2022 Rankin Innovator Acceleration Award recipients
June 22, 2022The Eshelman Institute Rankin Innovator Acceleration Award, supported by Lawson and Gisele Rankin, is given annually to provide students and Post Docs with funding to pursue entrepreneurial training opportunities. Brianna Vickerman, Ph.D. (left) and David Lee (right) The 2022 recipients of this award are Brianna Vickerman, Ph.D., and David Lee. Dr. Brianna Vickerman received her doctoral degree in Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry at UNC. Currently, she works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry. David Lee is a Pharmacology Ph.D. candidate at the UNC School of Medicine. … Read more
Does digital health demand a new kind of startup studio?
June 15, 2022Does digital health demand a new kind of startup studio? Carolina leaders from the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, UNC Health, UNC Research and Innovate Carolina pilot a partnership with High Alpha Innovation – aiming to create digital health startups better positioned for success. By Shellie Edge, Innovate Carolina Photography by Sarah Daniels, Innovate Carolina With 563 active startups launched by its faculty, staff and students currently creating social good and economic impact, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill exemplifies the national trend: universities are becoming increasingly adept at spinning out startup companies. In turn, a growing number of … Read more
UNC-Chapel Hill receives $65M from NIH for antiviral drug development center
May 20, 2022The new center will develop antivirals that could combat future pandemic-level viruses The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health awarded the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health a $65 million grant establishing an Antiviral Drug Discovery Center to develop oral antivirals that can combat pandemic-level viruses like COVID-19. The center builds upon and is tightly affiliated with UNC’s Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative. The READDI-AViDD Center, one of nine established by the NIH, is an integrated public-private partnership with a renowned, interdisciplinary research … Read more
Ronit Freeman, Jim Hagood awarded grant by Eshelman Institute for Innovation to pursue research in lung fibrosis
November 10, 2021The Eshelman Institute for Innovation recently awarded Ronit Freeman, Ph.D., and Jim Hagood, MD, a $350,000 opportunistic grant to pursue research in lung fibrosis. The award will fund the development of a new peptide-based approach to reverse lung fibrosis and will identify and validate a chemical lead to test for clinical use. Current treatments slow the progression of fibrosis, but do not restore damaged lung tissue. “This award will accelerate the development of our peptide drug technology. This is exciting, as peptide therapeutics occupy a well-defined space in the pharmaceutical landscape, in which they can outperform small molecules and larger … Read more
Search for antivirals, COVID-19 treatments boosted by SAS partnership with READDI
October 1, 2021SAS, a leader in analytics and software services, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are teaming up to transform the drug development process to prevent infectious disease threats from turning into a pandemic like COVID-19. The partnership is focused on the work of the University’s Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative (READDI) — founded by the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Eshelman School of Pharmacy and UNC School of Medicine — which is developing broad spectrum antiviral drugs to have on the shelf to prevent future pandemics To advance their work, SAS research and development teams are applying advanced machine learning techniques to integrate multiple biological … Read more