Category: Grants and Awards
Rodgers Named ACCP Fellow
August 17, 2009Jo Ellen Rodgers, PharmD, has been elected a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. Fellowship is the highest honor the college can bestow upon a member. Rodgers is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Rodgers will be officially inducted as a fellow at a special ceremony on October 18 during ACCP’s 2009 Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California.
Frye Leads UNC Team Selected for NCI Drug-Discovery Initiative
August 13, 2009A team of scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, and the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences will be working with the National Cancer Institute as part of a national effort to bring more targeted cancer therapies to patients as quickly as possible. The effort is led by Stephen Frye, PhD, a professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products and the director of the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Frye is also a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The … Read more
Ferreri Honored by NACDS
August 13, 2009The National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the NACDS Foundation named Stefanie Ferreri, PharmD, as first runner-up for its new Community Pharmacy Faculty Award at the 2009 NACDS Pharmacy & Technology Conference held August 10 in Boston. The award, supported by Wyeth, was established to recognize a pharmacy school full-time or shared faculty member who has made significant contributions to the practice of community pharmacy through innovations in patient care. Faculty members are assessed on their accomplishments in advancing patient care through community pharmacy as well as preparation of future leaders in pharmacy care. Ferreri is a clinical associate professor in … Read more
NIH Funds Xiao’s New Approach to Treating Muscular Dystrophy
July 29, 2009Xiao Xiao, PhD, the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor of Gene Therapy in the Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, has received a five-year grant worth up to $1.66 million from the National Institute of Arthritis and Muscoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the NIH to support his research into treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The grant will support Xiao’s project, “Myostatin Inhibition in DMD Dogs by Gene Transfer.” Muscular dystrophies are genetic diseases characterized by progressive muscle wasting. Duchenne muscular dystrophy occurs when a genetic mutation prevents the production of dystrophin, an essential muscle protein. Without this protein, individuals with DMD experience progressive … Read more
Students Win Big at SNPhA National Meeting
July 27, 2009Doctor of pharmacy students from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy had a strong showing at the Student National Pharmaceutical Association National Meeting on July 17 through 20 in Chicago. Maurice Alexander received more than $15,000 in scholarships, winning regional and national awards for the Walmart/NPhA Future Leaders Scholarship, as well as the Rite Aid Endowed Scholarship. Three other students from the School received a $1,000 scholarship each: Stephen Clark received the Terrence and Teresa Burroughs Endowed Scholarship. Benyam Muluneh won the Kroger “Future Pharmacist, Future Leaders” Award. Renita Patel won the JB Wells Endowed Scholarship. The team of Brianna … Read more
Paine Receives Stimulus Funding for Milk Thistle Study
July 24, 2009Mary Paine, PhD, has received an NIH grant of nearly $350,000 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the Economic Stimulus Package. Milk thistle extracts, made from the seeds of the plant, have been used traditionally as a treatment for liver diseases such as hepatitis and cirrhosis. A flavonoid complex called silymarin is thought to be the biologically active component. Modern studies into the plant’s effectiveness have been mixed in both their quality of design and their results. Paine is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. “We know a great deal about … Read more
Blalock, Injury Prevention Center Receive CDC Award
July 22, 2009Susan Blalock, PhD, is one UNC researcher who will benefit from $4.8 million in renewed funding for the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Blalock is an associate professor in the School’s Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. The CDC money will support her work in preventing falls among older adults. The UNC center is one of eleven Injury Control and Research Centers addressing injury prevention in the U.S. At each ICRC, scientists from … Read more
Hajjo Selected to Present at AAPS Graduate Student Symposium
July 14, 2009Rima Hajjo, a graduate student at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has been selected to make a podium presentation about her research during the AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition in Los Angeles, California. The presentation will be part of the Graduate Student Symposium in Drug Design and Discovery, which will be held on November 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Hajjo joined the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products in 2005. She is in the lab of division chair Alex Tropsha, PhD, and her research focuses on polypharmacology, network pharmacology, and computational screening of the GPCR … Read more
Lunch Leads to $5 Million Partnership for Lawrence
June 29, 2009After they both arrived in Chapel Hill in 2007, Nancy Allbritton, MD, PhD, asked fellow cancer researcher David Lawrence, PhD, to lunch to float the idea of a collaboration. “How could I say no? She was paying,” jokes Lawrence, a Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. That lunch created a research partnership dedicated to attacking breast and prostate cancer backed by a $5 million grant over five years from North Carolina’s University Cancer Research Fund. Lawrence moved to UNC from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Allbritton came from the University of … Read more
University Cancer Research Fund Creates Winning Partnership
June 2, 2009Nancy Allbritton, MD, PhD and David Lawrence, PhD, both arrived in Chapel Hill in 2007. Allbritton moved to UNC from the University of California at Irvine and Lawrence from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. They decided to come to UNC for similar reasons: a top-notch chemistry department that meshed well with their interests, an outstanding medical school, and a first-rate cancer center. Both of them are members of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in addition to their appointments in the College of Arts and Sciences and both were looking for research partners. Allbritton notes, “Most of … Read more