Category: Faculty
McLeod featured in University marketing campaign
November 9, 2009Howard McLeod, PharmD, Fred Eshelman Distinguish Professor and director of the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individiualized Therapy, is featured in the first television commercial produced as part of the University’s privately funded One campaign. The ad has been running at football and basketball games and on television during the games. Its purpose is to show how just one person at UNC can improve the lives of hundreds or thousands of other people. McLeod’s specialty is pharmacogenomics, the science of matching medicines to the unique genetic makeup of a patient, or as McLeod say, “getting the right drug to the right person … Read more
Roth study points to new uses, unexpected side effects of already-existing drugs
November 4, 2009Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California, San Francisco, have developed and experimentally tested a technique to predict new target diseases for existing drugs. The researchers developed a computational method that compares how similar the structures of all known drugs are to the naturally occurring binding partners — known as ligands — of disease targets within the cell. In a study published this week in Nature, the scientists showed that the method predicts potential new uses as well as unexpected side effects of approved drugs. “This approach uncovered interactions between drugs and … Read more
DeSimone to Receive North Carolina’s Highest Civilian Honor
October 28, 2009Joseph DeSimone, PhD, a professor in department of chemistry and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, will receive the North Carolina Award, the highest civilian honor in the state, on October 29. DeSimone is the Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences and holds a joint appointment in the School’s Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics. His research focuses on nanomedicine and drug delivery. He has developed techniques for mass-producing custom-made micro- and nanoparticles tailored to have specific sizes, shapes and surface properties. That technology, known as PRINT (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates), is exclusively licensed to … Read more
Lee Study: Pruning Protein Decreases Binding Affinity without Changing Structure
October 15, 2009A research team led by Andrew Lee, PhD, has demonstrated that a protein’s function can be changed without modifying its structure, creating a new comprehension of how proteins bind to each other and to drugs. “This is a fundamental change in the way we understand the simple act of binding, which is important not only for biology but for drug development.” says Lee, a professor in the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products. “This mechanism has never been seen before in single protein domains whose job it is to simply bind something. It is a nice, clear example … Read more
School Researchers Attract $2 Million in ARRA Stimulus Funding
October 6, 2009Faculty members at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have been awarded grants totaling more than $2 million from the National Institutes of Health through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the economic stimulus bill or recovery act. At the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, we believe we have a special obligation to our fellow citizens to report on the projects funded with this money. This page will be updated as new projects are funded. Stephen Frye, PhD, “Discovery of Small Molecule MBT Domain Antagonists” Frye received a two-year $873,000 challenge grant to study proteins involved in … Read more
School Faculty Shine at Annual AACP Meeting
October 2, 2009Faculty from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy were very active at the recent annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in Boston July 17 to 20. Five members of the faculty were installed to elected positions in sections and special interest groups: Lisa Dinkins, PharmD, secretary of the Laboratory Instructors SIG; Tim Ives, PharmD, MPH, chair-elect of the Pharmacy Practice Section; Kelly Scolaro, secretary of the Self-Care Therapuetics/Nonprescription Medicine SIG; Betsy Sleath, PhD, chair of the Social and Administrative Sciences Section; and K. T. Vaughan, MSLS, chair-elect of the Libraries/Educational Resources Section. A great many of … Read more
AAPS Honors Pollack with Manuscript Award
October 1, 2009A paper coauthored by Gary Pollack, PhD, has been selected by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists for the 2009 AAPS Pharmaceutical Research Meritorious Manuscript Award. The paper, “Kinetic Considerations for the Quantitative Assessment of Efflux Activity and Inhibition: Implications for Understanding and Predicting the Effects of Efflux Inhibition,” proposed a new way of analyzing data from experiments that examine how drugs move through the body. “In the old days, we used to believe drugs moved passively through the body, diffusing from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration,” Pollack says. “Now we know that proteins play an … Read more
Craig Lee Receives NIH Grant to Find New Inflammation Treatment
August 27, 2009Craig Lee, PharmD, PhD, an assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for a study that could lead to more treatment options for inflammation. The grant, worth up to $1.55 million over five years, will fund research investigating the role of a family of enzymes called cytochromes P450 — CYP for short — in the regulation of inflammatory responses in the liver and other tissues. “Inflammation plays an integral role in the development of numerous diseases and conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, cancer, and septic shock,” says … Read more
Rodgers Named ACCP Fellow
August 17, 2009Jo Ellen Rodgers, PharmD, has been elected a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. Fellowship is the highest honor the college can bestow upon a member. Rodgers is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Rodgers will be officially inducted as a fellow at a special ceremony on October 18 during ACCP’s 2009 Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California.
Frye Leads UNC Team Selected for NCI Drug-Discovery Initiative
August 13, 2009A team of scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, and the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences will be working with the National Cancer Institute as part of a national effort to bring more targeted cancer therapies to patients as quickly as possible. The effort is led by Stephen Frye, PhD, a professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products and the director of the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Frye is also a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The … Read more