Category: Faculty
Kathryn Morbitzer promoted to associate professor
October 11, 2023Kathryn Morbitzer, Pharm.D., M.S., has been promoted to associate professor in the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education (PACE) at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She is also the associate director of the Center for Innovative Pharmacy Education and Research (CIPhER) and assistant director of the M.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a concentration in Health-System Pharmacy Administration program. “Being promoted to associate professor is not just a milestone in my career; it represents a profound commitment to pharmacy education. I am deeply honored to have reached this stage, and I am excited about the opportunities ahead,” said … Read more
First-of-its-kind nationwide analysis of children’s health care and neighborhood impact
October 9, 2023A new descriptive analysis from the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy (DPOP) at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy found that children living in lower opportunity neighborhoods, areas that lack the vital conditions necessary for health, wealth and well-being, had the highest rates of poor physical and mental health status and fewest ambulatory care visits but accounted for the highest share of emergency department visits. This is the first analysis of its kind to look at all children across the U.S. and included a variety of variables such as health status, healthcare utilization and expenditures, access to care, parents’ … Read more
New research to help fight tumor growth
October 4, 2023Leaf Huang, Ph.D., has spent much of his career researching gene therapy and targeted drug delivery. In his current research, he is targeting bacteria that feed tumor growth with liposomal antibiotics in order to generate neoantigens that induce anti-tumor immune responses that help stop the growth. This would influence cancer progression—specifically colorectal cancer. Huang is the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics (DPMP) at the UNC Eshleman School of Pharmacy. He, along with first author and former postdoc, Menglin Wang, Ph.D., had this research published by a top journal, Nature Biotechnology. “We are glad … Read more
Research on extracellular vesicles will help in the fight against cancer
October 2, 2023Juliane Nguyen, Ph.D., is studying how exosomal ribonucleic acid (RNA) cargo contributes to progression in cancer and other diseases. Nguyen is a professor and vice chair in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She also serves as director of graduate admissions. Nguyen will continue this research through a $1.6 million research project grant (R01) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This research project is in collaboration with Klaus Hahn, Ph.D., Ronald G. Thurman Distinguished Professor in Pharmacology at the UNC School of Medicine. RNA is a molecule that is present in … Read more
Celebrating World Pharmacists Day 2023
September 25, 2023Written by Caroline Sasser, Pharm.D., PharmAlliance Program Coordinator Today we celebrate the 13th annual World Pharmacists Day – a day celebrating pharmacists around the world with the theme Pharmacy strengthening health systems. With this year’s theme in mind, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy would like to recognize faculty and partners for their contributions to building a stronger health system for us all. Stephen Eckel, Pharm.D., M.H.A. and Kathryn Morbitzer, Pharm.D., M.S., from the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education are training pharmacists and technicians to be health systems leaders through their online M.S. Program in Pharmacy Administration & … Read more
Improving pediatric brain cancer treatments
September 20, 2023Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov, Ph.D., Dr.Sci., is researching a new way to treat pediatric brain cancer. “If successful, our therapy will improve medulloblastoma treatment by replacing the current radiation and chemotherapy with one that is less toxic and more effective,” said Kabanov, Mescal S. Ferguson Distinguished Professor and director of the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. In July, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest charity funder of childhood cancer research grants, awarded $8.4 million to various researchers. Of those awarded, Kabanov was awarded $200,000 to further his research into medulloblastoma treatments. This grant … Read more
Utilizing AI and machine learning for drug discovery
September 14, 2023Alexander Tropsha, Ph.D., is exploring unchartered territory through research into ways artificial intelligence and machine learning can help advance the drug discovery process. Tropsha, a professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and director of the Laboratory for Molecular Modeling, is an expert in the fields of computational chemistry, cheminformatics and structural bioinformatics who works to develop new methodologies and software tools for computer-assisted drug design. His particular expertise lies in the field of cheminformatics, a discipline where information and informatics methodologies are applied to storing, managing, exploring and exploiting … Read more
Research to help eliminate barriers patients face when taking oral chemotherapy drugs
September 13, 2023Benyam Muluneh, Pharm.D. ‘10, assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy is starting a new project focused on optimizing the delivery of cancer care for North Carolinian patients taking orally administered chemotherapy drugs. With the support of a $1 million National Cancer Institute grant, Muluneh’s end goal for the project, which will be piloted in urban community and rural cancer centers, is to better understand the barriers patients face in being able to start and then stay on their oral anticancer drugs, which will lead to a patient-centered intervention that … Read more
Shawn Hingtgen advances his research on pediatric cancer
August 23, 2023Professor Shawn Hingtgen, Ph.D. will further his research on pediatric brain cancer patients with funding from the Ian’s Friends Foundation for his joint effort with project lead Scott Floyd, M.D., Ph.D., of Duke University around living tissue brain slices. “Ian’s Friends is an amazing foundation that is changing the lives of children with brain cancer. We are so grateful for all their incredible support over the years,” said Hingtgen. “This new award will allow us to explore exciting new aspects of the living tissue brain slice platform. Working in partnership with Dr. Scott Floyd and his team at Duke University, … Read more
Owen Fenton receives NIH award to help fund research to treat skin cancer
August 9, 2023Owen Fenton, Ph.D. received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Trailblazer R21 Award. He will receive a total of $601,122 over three years for his project focused on developing new medicines to treat skin cancer that are safer and more effective than current therapies. This project will be conducted in collaboration with co-investigator Stergios Moschos, M.D., associate professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine. “My group focuses broadly within the field of genetic medicine, with a particular focus on developing mRNA therapies for the treatment of disease. We are excited to receive this award which will enable us … Read more