Category: Eshelman Institute for Innovation
UNC-Chapel Hill Launches State-of-the-Art CRISPR Screening Facility
September 29, 2021The new facility, set to come online October 2021, is part of a cross-campus collaboration In 2012, a revolutionary new way to edit genes was unveiled to the world – CRISPR. Since then, the technology has been named as a “Breakthrough of the Year” by Science and has expanded to be applied to targeted epigenome editing. Now, this exciting technology is coming to UNC-Chapel Hill to enable rapid whole genome screening for new drug targets in the CRISPR Screening Facility. The state-of-the-art facility positions UNC to become a leader in academic CRISPR screening. The facility will be opening its doors … Read more
Eshelman Institute for Innovation announces recipients of 2021 grant cycle, will expand grant opportunities to all UNC faculty, staff
September 17, 2021The Eshelman Institute for Innovation is pleased to announce the recipients of their 2021 grant cycle! A total of $2.1 million has been granted to the below seven projects. Since 2015, the Eshelman Institute has brought value to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by supporting impactful work in the health sciences. In this time, the Institute has awarded more than $28 million in funding to 148 projects, assisted with 28 patent applications, 26 licensed technologies, and helped spin out 13 startup companies. (View the Institute’s 2020 Impact Report.) This year, the Institute is thrilled to announce they … Read more
Eshelman Institute for Innovation announces new Steering Board members
August 7, 2020The Eshelman Institute for Innovation (EII) is pleased to announce the addition of four new Steering Board members. These individuals represent a broad array of experience in biopharmaceutical/therapeutic innovation, which will build on the talent of the existing Board Members. New members include: H Stewart Parker is Principal of Parker BioConsulting. She has extensive experience in the BioPharma industry including the founding of Targeted Genetics Corporation (Nasdaq: TGEN). While in Washington state she also served as CEO of the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association (WBBA). Much of her early career was spent at Immunex Corporation. Stewart now lives in Chapel … Read more
Eshelman Institute for Innovation announces Rankin Innovator Acceleration Award Recipients
July 22, 2020As part of the annual Eshelman Institute for Innovation (EII) student and postdoctoral grant process, the EII Rankin Innovator Acceleration Award is given annually to the student(s) with the highest rated, commercially focused proposal. This year’s recipients include Ph.D. students Sabrina Iskandar and Jasmine King. Each student will receive $10,000 to support their proposal, and participation in entrepreneurism and business training opportunities. The award is funded by The Lawson and Gisele Rankin Endowment, and is currently matched with an annual gift. “The Rankin family understand the importance of translation of scientific innovation into real products and services that have an impact … Read more
Eshelman Institute for Innovation announces 2020 grant recipients
June 12, 2020The Eshelman Institute for Innovation (EII) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2020 grant cycle. A total of $1.3M will be granted to the below six projects: Kevin Frankowski Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery Metarrestin Derivatives as Selective Anti-Cancer Agents with Reduced CNS Exposure Co-PI: Sui Huang, Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Northwestern University Metastatic cancer remains an urgent, unmet medical need and, while numerous treatment options are available for many cancer patients, those with metastatic diseases have limited options. We developed metarrestin, a first-in-class anti-metastasis drug that recently began phase I … Read more
Researcher receives Eshelman Institute for Innovation grant to pursue COVID-19 therapy
April 20, 2020The Eshelman Institute for Innovation (EII) recently awarded Sam Lai, Ph.D., a $50,000 opportunistic grant to pursue COVID-19 research. The award will fund the development of a number of nebulized monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based therapy against COVID-19. This is based on the “muco-trapping” mAb platform that the Lai Lab has pioneered over the past 10 years. These mAbs, when delivered by inhalation, will neutralize the virus and quickly eliminate them from lung airways. “The funding provided by EII provides essential resources for us to continue our development of a number of potent antibody molecules for COVID-19, while we await other funding … Read more
Students create device to prevent drug diversion, take top honors at E(I) Lab Awards
April 25, 2019A team of five students claimed first place at the E(I) Lab Awards ceremony in April, following their project creation called NarcAlert – a device designed to prevent drug diversion in healthcare facilities. The E(I) Lab is a six-month-long experiential program that brings together graduate students, professional students and postdocs from diverse disciplines across UNC to conceive, develop and test innovative solutions to unmet needs in healthcare. This year’s winning team (called BCSD) included UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy students Christopher Wang, Brandon Luong, Stephanie Kim, Xiaorui Fu and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School student Chi Tsu. “We started our idea … Read more
Mucommune Receives Over $3M to Advance Muco-Trapping Antibodies
March 20, 2019Mucommune LLC has been awarded over $3 million in five separate federal grants over the past several months to advance its muco-trapping antibody technology. The company was launched in 2016 by Sam Lai, Ph.D., an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The muco-trapping antibody technology advanced by Mucommune is based on engineering the Fc region of IgG antibodies to interact with mucins. Tuning the Fc region to combine with mucins enables antibodies to immobilize viral and bacterial pathogens in different mucosal secretions, including respiratory airways, GI tract and female reproductive tract. Once the pathogens are trapped in … Read more
UNC Chapel Hill Ranked 10th in the World for Pharmacy and Pharmacology
March 1, 2019The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was ranked 10th in the world for pharmacy and pharmacology in the recently released 2019 QS World University Rankings. UNC was ranked 21st in the same category in 2018. Among American universities, Carolina’s pharmacy and pharmacology programs rank fourth overall. The QS World University Rankings highlight the world’s top universities in 48 subjects, based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. Four factors are used to create the rating: A survey of over 83,000 academics worldwide A survey of 42,000 graduate employers A measure of Scopus citations per faculty member … Read more
CMO Summit Takes On Medication Mismanagement
January 22, 2019The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the School’s Center for Medication Optimization brought together leaders from across the health care industry to highlight the multi-billion dollar problem of medication mismanagement and develop collaborative medication optimization strategies that aim to transform health care. More than half of the U.S. population takes multiple medications daily to help treat one or more chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes. Other serious conditions, like cancer and HIV, have extremely complex regimens that must be coordinated. And when these medication regimens are mismanaged by health care providers and patients, it can lead to unnecessary medical … Read more