Category: Featured
Monash, UCL, UNC Advance PharmAlliance Partnership
March 10, 2016PharmAlliance, the research, education and practice partnership between three of the world’s most highly regarded schools of pharmacy — Monash University, University College London and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — has announced its first round of grant funding. Established in March 2015, PharmAlliance enables the partners to pursue new educational, practice and research collaborations to address major international issues in the fields of drug discovery and development, nanomedicine and nanotechnology development and clinical pharmacology. “Many of the problems we’re facing are too big for one institution on its own to solve. We strongly believe that combining … Read more
Stephen Eckel Appointed Associate Dean for Global Engagement
March 8, 2016Stephen Eckel, Pharm.D., M.H.A., has been appointed associate dean for global engagement of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy effective February 1, succeeding Dhiren Thakker, Ph.D., who served in the role for the past eight years. Eckel will be responsible for identifying and pursuing strategic partnerships to expand the research, education and practice mission of the School globally. Eckel received his Bachelor of Science in pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed a pharmacy practice residency at Duke University Medical Center and joined UNC Hospitals as a clinical pharmacist. He holds … Read more
Jon Easter Joins School as Director of CMOPP
March 7, 2016Jon Easter has joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as the director of the Center for Medication Optimization through Practice and Policy and a professor of the practice. The center, which is embedded within the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education and launched in April 2015, seeks to solidify the role of pharmacy practice within value-based health care payment and care-delivery models by building a hub to support internal and external collaboration, research and education. Easter said CMOPP will develop a robust, real-world-practice research capability by securing a variety of grants, facilitate strategic collaborations with interdisciplinary partners to … Read more
PGY1 Community Pharmacy Residents Receive APhA Foundation Incentive Grants
March 7, 2016Three PGY1 community pharmacy residents at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are recipients of APhA Foundation Incentive Grants. They will be recognized at the APhA 2016 Annual Meeting and Exposition March 4–7 in Baltimore. Hannah Renner, Laura Rhodes and Breanna Sunderman were selected for the grant; Sunderman was also selected to present an APhA Patient Care Services Pearl, a 15-minute presentation about an innovation that would benefit pharmacists. Macary Marciniak, Pharm.D., is the director of the PGY1 Community Pharmacy Residency Program and a clinical associate professor in the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education. “I think it speaks … Read more
Study Explains Why Women Need More Truvada than Men to Prevent HIV Infection
March 3, 2016Women need daily doses of the antiviral medication Truvada to prevent HIV infection while men only need two doses per week due to the way the drug accumulates in different body tissues, according to a new study from researchers the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, represents an important paradigm shift for HIV prevention strategies and could have major implications for clinical trial designs, said Angela Kashuba, Pharm.D., senior author of the study and the John and Deborah McNeill Distinguished Professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. “Our data highlight … Read more
Using New Screening Tool, UNC Researchers Identify Potential Treatments for Ewing Sarcoma
March 1, 2016In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered and applied a new screening technique capable of testing thousands of potential drug compounds to see if those compounds can reverse the abnormal DNA unwinding that marks a pediatric bone cancer known as Ewing sarcoma. Ewing sarcoma is a bone and soft tissue cancer that is most common in teens and young adults. In the sarcoma, DNA is unwound abnormally from a condensed, compact state, leaving gaps in the genetic code. With key sections of the code left open, certain genes are turned on … Read more
UNC Scientists First to Hunt Brain Cancer with Skin Cells Converted to Stem Cells
February 24, 2016Scientists at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are using the newest version of a Nobel Prize–winning technology for the first time to build cancer-killing stem cells that hunt down and mop up the remnants of invasive brain tumors, promising a new and more effective treatment for glioblastoma, a cancer with very low survival rates. “Glioblastoma patients desperately need something better, and we are trying to provide that with a better drug-delivery system,” said Shawn Hingtgen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School’s Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and a member of UNC Lineberger who led the research effort. With the … Read more
School Signs MOU with Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeswara University
February 23, 2016Representatives from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Global visited Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeswara University in Mysore, India, Jan. 19–21 to sign a memorandum of understanding formalizing the partnership between the universities and to explore areas for collaboration in pharmacy. Ronald Strauss, executive vice provost and chief international officer at UNC-Chapel Hill, accompanied a delegation from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, which included Dhiren Thakker, Ph.D., associate dean of global engagement; David Steeb, Pharm.D., director of global engagement; and Miranda Law, Pharm.D., global engagement fellow. Participating in the signing … Read more
Pediatric Medication Safety Is Focus of Chapel Hill PharmSci 2016 Conference
February 11, 2016Research into the safety of pediatric medications is the focus of Chapel Hill PharmSci 2016 hosted by the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy May 12-13 and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, and the NC TraCS Institute. The 2016 conference is designed for health services researchers, clinicians and clinician scientists, pharmacists, health educators, insurers, regulators and students with an interest in pediatric medication safety. It will be held in Kerr Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More information and registration can … Read more
Elizabeth Gurysh Receives PhRMA Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
February 4, 2016Elizabeth Gurysh, Ph.D., was awarded the pharmaceutics postdoctoral fellowship by the PhRMA Foundation, whose mission is to support young scientists in disciplines important to the pharmaceutical industry to encourage them to pursue careers in research and education related to drug discovery. The fellowship is a $40,000 per year stipend for two years to further develop and refine her research skills in pharmaceutics as a postdoctoral fellow. Pharmaceutics is the science of drug-delivery systems that emphasizes a quantitative understanding and use of the principles underlying drug delivery and drug transport. It is a multidisciplinary science with significant underpinnings from basic sciences … Read more