Category: Featured
First in Venture Studio Takes Aim at the Opioid Crisis
February 20, 2023An eight-month collaboration to bring digital health solutions to market reaches a milestone with Pitch Day Rob Kimball, a Director with High Alpha Innovation, sums up what the company does in one sentence: “We co-create advantaged startups that solve compelling problems.” He goes on, “This is the hardest, most compelling problem that we’ve ever had to point our toolset at.” Rob is referring to the opioid crisis. Each year in the United States, opioid use disorder (OUD) costs the country over $140 billion in hospitalizations, medical costs, criminal justice costs, and loss of productivity. This is on top of the … Read more
Mr. and Mrs. Doctor Rodgers
February 15, 2023A love story that began in pharmacy school and continues here today It was late August, 1993 and classes were just beginning for the year at the UNC School of Pharmacy. Jo Ellen Baldwin was in the last year of her BS in Pharmacy program and trying to get a jump start on her PharmD degree by taking a couple PharmD courses, including stats. Also in the stats class was Phil Rodgers, who had just returned to the School for his PharmD after having attained his BS degree here a year prior. This is how the couple, affectionately known today … Read more
What Does Black History Month Mean to You? Part 2 – UNC Pharmacy Perspectives
February 8, 2023Throughout the month of February, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy will be highlighting perspectives from students, faculty and staff on what Black History Month means to them. This week, we spoke to Tatiana Hines, Ronny Bell and Brian Lawrence. Tatiana Hines, Student, PY4 Where are you from? Sicklerville, New Jersey What does Black History Month mean to you? Black History Month means celebration and acknowledgment of the accomplishment of oftentimes unsung Black figures. Without the talent, discoveries, and intellect of many, we would not be where we are today as a society. It is also a reminder to Black … Read more
Kristy Ainslie receives $3.2 million from NIH to develop new vaccine
February 6, 2023The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Professor Kristy Ainslie, Ph.D., chair of the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics with a five-year grant to develop a new vaccine to treat orthopoxviruses. The NIH is providing over $3.2 million dollars of funding toward Ainslie’s project “Mechanistic evaluation of mast cell agonists combined with TLR, NOD and STING agonists.” Orthopoxvirus is a genus of virus that include smallpox and other animal pox like monkey pox and rabbit pox. The current vaccine is a live virus, which cannot be given to people with a weakened immune … Read more
What Does Black History Month Mean to You? – UNC Pharmacy Perspectives
February 1, 2023Throughout the month of February, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy will be highlighting perspectives from students, faculty and staff on what Black History Month means to them. This week, we spoke to Dean Angela Kashuba, Ashley Addison and Tazche Turner. Angela Kashuba, Dean of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Where are you from? Toronto, Canada What does Black History Month mean to you? Black history is exquisitely linked to our campus, and our school. For me, Black History Month is an opportunity to recognize, appreciate, and be grateful for the incredible contributions that Black Americans have made. It’s a … Read more
Kristy Ainslie receives 2023 Sato Memorial International Award
January 30, 2023Kristy Ainslie, Ph.D., has been named the recipient of the 2023 Sato Memorial International Award. The Sato Memorial fund presents this award to a person who has greatly contributed to the fields of pharmacology, therapeutics and pharmaceutical sciences in the United States. The Sato memorial fund was created to encourage innovation in pharmaceutical science research through the exchange of scientists between Japan and the United States. Keeping in line with this vision, Ainslie will travel to Sapporo, Japan in March to receive this award at the 143rd Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. “It’s really an incredible honor to … Read more
Betsy Sleath awarded funding for research to improve quality of life for youth with ADHD
January 25, 2023The National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) has awarded Betsy Sleath, Ph.D. regional associate dean of eastern North Carolina and her team, funding for research that hopes to help improve the symptoms and social and school functioning of young people diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The NIMH is providing nearly $450,000 for Sleath’s project “Improving the outcomes of adolescents with ADHD via a pre-visit question prompt list/video intervention: a randomized controlled feasibility trial.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders found in childhood. The CDC estimates that from … 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
UNC-Chapel Hill Pharmacy research scientist receives funding to develop new lung cancer immunotherapy method
December 21, 2022Limei Shen, a research scientist at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, received the 2022 Vicky Amidon Innovation Grant in Lung Cancer Research award. This grant provides funding for her project which develops a new immunotherapy method to treat lung cancer patients. The Lung Cancer Initiative is providing funding for this project for $25,000 starting next year. Shen is a research scientist in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics (DPMP). Her research is focused on cancer immunotherapy, a topic she has been working on since her Ph.D. project. In her early studies, Shen saw … Read more
UNC-Chapel Hill Pharmacy Professor Denise Rhoney named Master of Critical Care Medicine
December 19, 2022Denise H. Rhoney, Pharm.D., FCCP, FCCM, FNCS, a Ron and Nancy McFarlane Distinguished Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy will be named a Master of Critical Care Medicine (MCCM) by the American College of Critical Care Medicine (ACCM) in January 2023. According to the Council of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), the designation of MCCM is based upon Rhoney’s status as a long-standing Fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine. The SCCM says the distinction reflects her achievements as a prominent and distinguished leader of national and international stature, personal character, leadership, eminence in … Read more