Category: Faculty
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
Singleton Start Up Inks Deal, Attracts Funding
March 11, 2010A new company founded on the research of associate professor Scott Singleton, PhD, hopes to restore or boost the effectiveness of antibiotics that have been steadily losing ground to increasingly resistant bacteria. Synereca Pharmaceuticals was created to address the growing problem of bacterial resistance to current antibiotics. The company aims to develop orally active drugs that support existing antibiotics by inhibiting the enzyme RecA, Singleton says. RecA is the focus of his work and is a key factor in bacterial DNA repair and in the development and transmission of antibiotic resistance. “It’s astounding the diversity of roles played by RecA,” … Read more
Roth McClurg Appointed to ACCP Research Institute Board
February 10, 2010Mary Roth McClurg, PharmD, has been appointed to a two-year term on the board of trustees of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Research Institute. She is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. The Research Institute is the research arm of ACCP and works to advance pharmacotherapy by supporting and promoting research, training, and educational programs. The board is responsible for the general oversight and direction of the institute.
Eckel, Marciniak Named APhA Fellows
February 4, 2010Stephen Eckel, PharmD, and Macary Weck Marciniak, PharmD, faculty members in the Division of Pharmacy Practice and Experiential Education, have been named fellows of the American Pharmacists Association. They will be honored at the APhA Annual Meeting and Exposition on March 12-15 in Washington, D.C. Eckel is a clinical assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the assistant director of pharmacy at UNC Hospitals. He also oversees the School’s MS in pharmaceutical sciences program with a specialization in health-system pharmacy administration. Marciniak is a clinical associate professor at the School, where she also serves as assistant director of … Read more
Roth McClurg Baseline Study Shows Racial Differences in Medication Use by the Elderly
February 1, 2010New research by Mary Roth McClurg, PharmD, MHS, and colleagues shows that older black patients have more medication-related problems than their white counterparts, and nonadherence (not taking their medicines as directed) is a particular issue for this group. Roth McClurg is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Older adults experience a number of medication-related problems, including underuse of needed medications, use of suboptimal drugs, suboptimal dosing, and non-adherence, which not only have negative effects on their health and quality of life, but cost the health care industry billions … Read more
Sleath Named Interim Chair of DPOP
January 20, 2010Professor Betsy Sleath, PhD, has been named the interim chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She will officially assume the position’s duties on March 1. Mick Murray, PharmD, MPH, is stepping down as chair of the division and returning to Indiana where he will assume the positions of Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Endowed Chair of Medication Safety at Purdue University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and executive director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Improvement and Research at Regenstrief Institute. According to Dean Robert Blouin, the School … Read more
Dinkins Honored for One-to-One Patient Care
January 13, 2010When a customer showed up with fifteen new prescriptions and old medication bottles for his mother, who was too sick to come to the pharmacy, Lisa Dinkins, PharmD, compared the prescriptions with the patient’s old medications to check for problems such as omissions, duplications, and potential drug interactions. She then drew up a new medications list for the patient, clearly marked the old bottles of medicine that were no longer needed, and discussed the new medications at length with the son until he could repeat back to her how he would administer them to his mother while she was ill. … Read more
NIAID Grant Launches Kashuba’s Plan for HIV-Prevention Trials
December 18, 2009Development of an AIDS vaccine is struggling. Topical treatments aimed at stopping HIV have made little progress. Angela Kashuba, PharmD, believes that antiretroviral drugs are the best hope for halting the spread of AIDS, especially in the developing world. “I and the scientists I work with believe antiretrovirals are probably the most rational approach for preventing HIV infection,” she says. “We think they are going to be the key for stemming the epidemic of HIV.” Kashuba is an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and director of the Clinical Pharmacology and Analytical Chemistry Core of the UNC … Read more
Gal, Koval Receive Grants for Second Life Projects
December 10, 2009Peter Gal, PharmD, and Pete Koval, PharmD, faculty members in the Division of Pharmacy Practice and Experiential Education, have received Lenovo Innovation Grants from the UNC Center for Faculty Excellence to develop projects in Second Life to help students in real life. Gal, a clinical professor, will use his $9,900 grant to create an orientation program on the virtual-reality social network to familiarize fourth-year doctor of pharmacy students with clinical practice in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before they begin that portion of their practice-experience curriculum. Gal oversees the neonatal pharmacotherapy fellowship at the NICU at The Women’s Hospital of … 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