Category: General
Professor Emeritus George Cocolas Dies, Served School More than 40 Years
December 21, 2016Professor Emeritus George Cocolas, Ph.D., a member of the School’s faculty for more than 40 years, died Monday, Dec. 19, after a brief illness. His funeral will be held Friday, Dec. 23, at 11 a.m. at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church in Durham. Cocolas joined the faculty of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in 1958 and retired in 1999. During his long tenure at the School, Cocolas was chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry from 1975 to 1982 and served as associate dean for 17 years. He also chaired the School’s admissions committee. He may be best known … Read more
Research Tech Paints with Purpose to Brighten NC Children’s Hospital
December 16, 2016Rachel Howard, a research technician at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is blanketing the North Carolina Children’s Hospital with holiday spirit one window at a time. Howard is painting wintry scenes for children at NC Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill. She calls her project Paint with Purpose and plans to decorate 72 windows in the hospital, which include all the individual children’s rooms on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors along with the pediatric playroom. “It’s been very interactive,” Howard said. “I have enjoyed taking requests from the kids, and sometimes they, too, like to grab a brush and … Read more
Students Place Second in NCPA Business Plan Competition
December 14, 2016A team from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy received second place in the 2016 Good Neighbor Pharmacy NCPA Pruitt-Schutte Student Business Plan Competition. Held during the National Community Pharmacists Association 2016 Annual Convention in New Orleans in October, the competition included teams from 46 schools and colleges of pharmacy from across the country. Its goal is to help prepare future pharmacy entrepreneurs by motivating students to create a business model to buy an existing independent community pharmacy or develop a new one. The School’s team won $2,000 for its chapter, and the competition contributed another $2,000 to the School … Read more
New research project aims to translate biomedical data for better health care, research, and policy-making
December 9, 2016A new project led by researchers at RENCI and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy aims to develop a biomedical data “translator” that will integrate, synthesize and interpret multiple sources of clinical and biomedical data to provide information to guide clinical care, inform clinical and translational research, stimulate drug discovery and repurpose and motivate public-health decisions. The project is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Data is ubiquitous in both clinical settings and in biomedical research labs. It includes disease symptoms noted by health-care professionals, lab results from tests done on patients, information about … Read more
School Receives 2016 HEED Diversity Award
November 28, 2016The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy was selected by Insight Into Diversity magazine as a 2016 recipient of the prestigious Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award. The oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, Insight Into Diversity presents the award to U.S. medical, dental, pharmacy, osteopathic, nursing and allied health schools that demonstrate a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion through their innovative programs, hiring practices and on-campus support systems. “The HEED award is a measure of a progress we have made as a school in meeting a need in our profession and our society,” said Carla … Read more
Eckel, Ferreri Recognized at 2016 NCAP Convention
November 21, 2016UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy faculty members Stephen Eckel, Pharm.D., M.H.A., and Stefanie Ferreri, Pharm.D., were recognized by the North Carolina Association of Pharmacists at its 2016 Convention. Eckel, the president of NCAP, was presented with the President’s Award, and Ferreri, the president-elect, was presented with the National Community Pharmacists Association Leadership Award and McKesson Leadership Award, which are given to the president-elect for his or her service and leadership in NCAP and to the North Carolina pharmacy community. Other faculty members receiving awards at the convention were Assistant Professor of Clinical Education Joseph Moose, Pharm.D., who received the Bowl … Read more
Minton, Bowman Receive PAA Service Awards
November 21, 2016The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Alumni Association presented its 2016 service awards to alumni Gene Minton and Gary Bowman at a dinner held at the Governors Club in Chapel Hill on Nov. 4. Pharmacy Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award Gene Minton of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina was presented with the Pharmacy Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award. This award is presented to an alumnus whose accomplishments and contributions enhance the School and the profession of pharmacy at the local, state, national or international level. As president of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy in 2011-2012, Minton negotiated with state legislators … Read more
Simple Genetic Test Promises Better Outcomes in Heart Stent Patients
November 15, 2016Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that a quick, precise genetic test can significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by helping to identify a more effective medication for some heart patients who receive a stent. The test identifies a genetic deficiency that affects the body’s ability to activate clopidogrel, a common anti-clotting drug given after a coronary artery stent is inserted. During a recent multi-institutional study from NIH’s Implementing Genomics in Practice Network, researchers at UNC, University of Florida Health and other sites throughout the country analyzed medical outcomes in 1,815 patients who … Read more
UNC Scientists Devise More Accurate System for Predicting Risks of New Chemical Products
November 10, 2016The approach used by regulators to initially screen new chemical products for toxic effects is wrong almost half the time, according to scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They have proposed an improvement that could increase accuracy to as much as 85 percent, saving millions of dollars and years of development time for new drugs and other products while improving safety. Regulatory agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, that are charged with evaluating new drugs and other chemical products rely on an initial screening of the product’s molecular structure. … Read more
E(I) Lab Hosts Inaugural Final Presentations
October 28, 2016The Carolina E(I) Lab, part of the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, concluded its pilot year by hosting final presentations from the inaugural cohort of student teams on Oct. 1, with the top four teams awarded monetary prizes. The presentations were evaluated by a panel of judges that included Bob Blouin, Pharm.D., dean of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and Dhiren Thakker, Ph.D., the School’s associate dean for entrepreneurial development. E(I) Lab is a six-month experiential program that exposes professional students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to the cycle of creating an innovative product and bringing it to market. The … Read more