Category: Featured
China Scholarship Council Inks First-of-Its-Kind Agreement with UNC Pharmacy
April 10, 2017The China Scholarship Council has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to provide financial assistance for Chinese students studying pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In a ceremony at the Carolina Inn on Monday, March 27, representatives of the China Scholarship Council agreed to provide support to Chinese students who are accepted into the Doctor of Pharmacy and the Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences program at the pharmacy school. In 2016, the CSC provided financial assistance to approximately 110,000 Chinese citizens pursuing study abroad and to foreign … Read more
Chicago Track Champ Tackles Newest Challenge: No. 1 Pharmacy School in U.S.
April 7, 2017CHICAGO — Raena Rhone envisions track as a savior to countless Chicago kids. The former Whitney Young High School two-time state champion in the 400 meters and 14-time all-Big 12 runner at Baylor said running always kept her on track. She has plans to start a track club in the city to help Chicago’s youngsters find a similar path to success. “When young people are involved in something bigger than themselves, they realize there is something more than the here and now,” Rhone said. “Violence is coming from that because they don’t see beyond today and they make poor … Read more
UNC, Russian Scientists Create Biological Shield against Nerve Gas, Pesticides
April 3, 2017Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Moscow State University have created a new way to package and deliver a potent enzyme that can reverse — and even prevent — poisoning by pesticides and nerve gas, including VX and sarin, which has been used worldwide as a chemical weapon and estimated to be 26 times more deadly than cyanide. The team, led by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov, Ph.D., Dr.Sci., Mescal S. Ferguson Distinguished Professor, figured out how to wrap the powerful enzyme, called organophosphorus hydrolase, in a tiny nanoparticle, which could be taken before, during … Read more
Persky Receives 2017 AACP Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award
April 3, 2017Adam Persky, Ph.D., has been named a recipient of a 2017 Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. He will be honored along with one other recipient during the Opening General Session of this year’s AACP Annual Meeting, held July 15–19 in Nashville, Tennessee. Persky is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. He joined the School in 2004, and he served as the director of the Center for Educational Excellence in Pharmacy from 2011 to 2013. Persky has received several prestigious teaching … Read more
Pharmacy’s Robert McGinty Named 2017 Searle Scholar
March 31, 2017Robert McGinty, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been selected as a 2017 Searle Scholar. He is the first Searle Scholar named at the University of North Carolina in the past 10 years. The Searle Scholars Program named 15 scientists as Searle Scholars for 2017. Recipients are awarded $300,000 in flexible funding to support their work over the next three years. The Searle Scholars Program makes grants to selected universities and research centers to support the independent research of exceptional young faculty in the … Read more
UNC to Create and Test Injectable Long-Acting Implant to Prevent HIV Infection
March 27, 2017Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have received a three-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a new implantable drug delivery system for long-lasting HIV-prevention. Scientists in the UNC School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are developing an injectable drug delivery system that forms an implant that steadily releases anti-HIV medication over long periods of time. The injectable formulation includes an anti-HIV drug, a polymer and a solvent. The three-compound liquid will solidify once injected under the skin. As the polymer slowly degrades, … Read more
Postdoc Elizabeth Wayne Selected as TED Fellow
March 13, 2017Elizabeth Wayne, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in cancer nanotechnology at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been selected as a TED fellow and will take the stage to deliver a talk at TED2017 this April in Vancouver. She joins a class of 15 young innovators from four continents and a program that has selected 414 fellows from 87 countries since its inception in 2009. “As a graduate student, I wanted to use my physics training, but I wanted to solve a biological problem,” Wayne said. “The more I learned about cancer, the more I thought an interdisciplinary approach would … Read more
Ferreri Promoted to Clinical Professor
March 10, 2017Stefanie Ferreri, Pharm.D., executive vice chair of the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education, has been promoted to the rank of clinical professor. Ferreri joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a clinical assistant professor in 2001 and was promoted to clinical associate professor in 2009. She was named executive vice chair of PACE in 2012. Ferreri served as director of the School’s PGY1 Community Pharmacy Residency Program from 2004 to 2015 and currently directs the Community Pharmacy Research Fellowship and the Independent Pharmacy Ownership Residency. Her main research interests are advancing clinical practice and transforming practice models … Read more
Mosedale Receives Sternfels Prize for Proposal to Better Predict Liver-Injury Risk
March 9, 2017Merrie Mosedale, Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been awarded the $35,000 Sternfels Prize for Drug Safety Innovation for her proposal to find a molecular “fingerprint” to help identify people at risk for idiosyncratic, or unexplained, adverse drug reactions. Mosedale is a member of the UNC Institute for Drug Safety Sciences. The Sternfels Prize was created to encourage researchers to find ways to make using pharmaceuticals less risky. It is awarded to the most important and testable idea to reduce life-threatening drug-drug, drug-disease or pharmacogenomic interactions. Mosedale’s research focuses on drug-induced liver injury, … Read more
Former FDA Head Visits School, Calls for Greater Sharing of Patient Data
March 3, 2017Robert Califf, M.D., the U.S. commissioner of food and drugs from 2016 to 2017, was at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Monday, Feb. 27, to discuss data sharing and diversity in clinical trials and to host an open forum with faculty and students. At a luncheon held at the Carolina Club on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, Califf spoke about his experiences as head of the Food and Drug Administration and about the need for ensuring diversity in clinical trials, pointing out that the United States accounts for only 4 percent of the world’s population … Read more