Category: General
UNC Researchers Develop Platform for Universal Flu Vaccine
November 5, 2018Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are developing a universal flu vaccine which could be effective against multiple influenza strains and in multiple flu seasons. In the United States, up to 35.6 million people become infected with the flu each year, resulting in up to 710,000 hospitalizations and 56,000 flu related deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The effectiveness of seasonal flu vaccines can vary from year to year — with some years, such as 2004, as low as 10 percent efficacy. In a study published by the Journal of Controlled Release, … Read more
UNC-Chapel Hill and Deerfield Management Launch Drug Discovery Company
November 1, 2018The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Deerfield Management have entered into a partnership to create Pinnacle Hill, LLC., a company seeking to discover new medicines to address the significant unmet medical needs of our times. Deerfield has committed $65 million of targeted funding and to provide drug development expertise in support of promising new drug research across a wide range of therapeutic areas. “This is a very exciting new partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and Deerfield Management. In creating a new company, Pinnacle Hill, we are bringing together the best of academia and industry to accelerate innovative drug research,” said … Read more
Pharm.D. Students Win Grant for Pharmacist Well-Being Project
October 31, 2018Two Pharm.D. students at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy were awarded the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists Foundation’s Defining the Future grant. PY4 Abby MacCauley and PY3 Ashley Kang’s project won one of four $1,500 Defining the Future grants nationwide. Their project is a parallel assessment of pharmacist and pharmacy student wellness in mental, physical and personal health. “This is really the first time that anyone has looked at pharmacist and pharmacy student wellness in a comprehensive, holistic manner,” MacCauley said. “By looking at different aspects of health, we hope to find connections between them and help employers … Read more
MAHEC, UNC-Chapel Hill Celebrate New Interprofessional Academic Health Center
October 30, 2018The Mountain Area Health Education Center and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have partnered for the construction of a new academic health center building on MAHEC’s Biltmore campus in Asheville. UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC seeks to address health care worker shortages and improve education across a number of health science fields in western North Carolina. The UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC building supports an innovative educational partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and MAHEC and will house UNC School of Medicine’s Asheville campus; a Master of Public Health program led by UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health; … Read more
iNClusive STEM Pitch Summit Highlights Female, Minority Entrepreneurs
October 29, 2018Minority and female entrepreneurs gathered at the Rizzo Center on October 11 to participate in the iNClusive STEM Innovation Pitch Summit. The event, co-hosted by the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the UNC School of Law, allowed entrepreneurs from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds to showcase and pitch their innovations and businesses for the opportunity to receive funding. The event was open to women, African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians in STEM fields. Event organizer and assistant professor Anita Jackson, M.D., M.P.H., said the event supported the School and University mission to support underrepresented groups. “UNC’s first iNClusive STEM Innovation Pitch … Read more
UNC Medical Center Department of Pharmacy Earns Innovator Award for Reducing Drug Waste
October 26, 2018At the 35th Annual National Oncology Conference, the Association of Community Cancer Centers recognized the UNC Department of Pharmacy and the North Carolina Cancer Hospital this past weekend as one of several forward-thinking cancer program members to create innovative strategies for the effective delivery of cancer care. The NC Cancer Hospital is UNC Lineberger’s clinical home. Now in its eighth year, the Innovator Awards recognize ACCC member programs that have created inventive solutions to challenges commonly faced by cancer programs and practices, as well as the multidisciplinary care team. Lindsey Amerine, PharmD, MS, associate director of pharmacy at the UNC Medical Center in Chapel … Read more
Ainslie Awarded $1.89M NIH Grant to Develop Multiple Sclerosis Vaccine
October 16, 2018The National Institutes of Health awarded a grant of nearly $2 million to Kristy Ainslie, Ph.D., for a proposal to develop a therapeutic vaccine for multiple sclerosis. Ainslie is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, as well as an adjunct associate professor in the UNC Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She said the project’s long-term goal is to design a biodegradable, tunable particle system to serve as a therapeutic vaccine to alleviate multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central … Read more
Grandy Receives NCAP Excellence in Innovation Award
October 15, 2018Rebecca Grandy, Pharm.D., is the recipient of the 2018 Excellence in Innovation Award from the North Carolina Association of Pharmacists for her work providing hepatitis C care in rural communities. Grandy is an assistant professor of clinical education at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Asheville satellite campus and practices at the Mountain Area Health Education Center’s Family Health Center. The award recognizes Grandy’s efforts to increase access to hepatitis C treatment in primary care centers. The incidence of hepatitis C virus is on the rise due to the country’s opioid epidemic and rising rates of injection drug use, Grandy … Read more
Hingtgen Awarded UNC Hettleman Prize for Young Faculty
October 12, 2018Shawn Hingtgen, Ph.D., was awarded the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hingtgen is an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics. His research harnesses the potential of stem cells to develop new and better methods for treating terminal cancer. Working closely with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and clinicians, Hingtgen showed how skin cells could be flipped into stem cells that hunt down and deliver cancer-killing drugs to glioblastoma, the deadliest malignant brain … Read more
Ferreri Awarded $3M CDC Grant for Study on Opioid Use
October 10, 2018The Centers for Disease Control awarded a $3 million grant to Stefanie Ferreri, Pharm.D., for a study on screening older adults who use prescription opioids and are at risk for falls. Ferreri is the executive vice chair of the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and a clinical professor. Her study will engage patients within the UNC Health Care System who are 65 years of age or older and taking either an opioid or benzodiazepine, with the objective of implementing a de-prescribing medication protocol to protect older adults at risk of falls. … Read more