Category: News
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy celebrates 125 years of service
March 1, 2022This month, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy is celebrating its 125th Anniversary! In 1897, the school of pharmacy was established under Dean Edward Vernon Howell with the vision of serving the health care needs of North Carolinians. The first pharmacy class boasted 17 students and one instructor, and tuition cost $75 a year. Fun fact! Back then, our Dean was also a Ph.D. student and an outstanding member of the Carolina football team. Today, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy continues to be the only public school of pharmacy in the state of North Carolina and one of the oldest in … Read more
PharmAlliance partners for better healthcare worldwide
February 25, 2022PharmAlliance’s annual conference, held virtually in the fall of 2021, drew more than 400 attendances over 10 sessions, and promoted science and new ideas in pharmacy practice, education, and research. PharmAlliance is a strategic, international partnership between three top-10 schools of pharmacy in the world. The partnership holds an annual week-long conference to bring new ideas, space for discussion, and opportunity for collaboration to faculty, staff, and students at UCL School of Pharmacy, Monash University Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. In 2021, the annual PharmAlliance Week was virtually for the second time. … Read more
Chimerix, in collaboration with READDI at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, announces late-breaking oral presentation at International Conference on Antiviral Research
February 24, 2022CMX521 Significantly Reduced Lung Viral Titer and Clinical Symptoms in a SARS-CoV-2 Mouse Model Chimerix (NASDAQ:CMRX), in collaboration with the Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, today announced that preclinical data from the Company’s CMX521 program will be featured in a late-breaking oral presentation session at the International Conference on Antiviral Research (ICAR) on Wednesday, March 23, 2022 from 12:15 – 1:00 pm PT. “While we focus on the advancement of our oncology pipeline and progress toward a TEMBEXA procurement agreement with BARDA, this collaboration with READDI allows us to efficiently evaluate … Read more
U.S. Food and Drug Administration updates label on children’s seizure medication after UNC, Duke study provides pharmacokinetic, dosing data
February 18, 2022A Pediatric Trials Network pharmacokinetics study led by researchers at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and Duke University recently contributed to a medication label change for the drug diazepam, commonly used to treat seizures in children. This research effort, Population Pharmacokinetics and Exploratory Exposure-Response Relationships of Diazepam in Children Treated for Status Epilepticus, contributed pharmacokinetic and dosing data for the intravenous administration of diazepam, a benzodiazepine typically used in children for the management of status epilepticus and severe recurrent seizures. UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Daniel Gonzalez, Pharm.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, helped … Read more
Marina Sokolsky-Papkov, Ph.D., team, discover combination therapy to treat medulloblastoma brain tumors in children
February 16, 2022UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Marina Sokolsky-Papkov, Ph.D., and Timothy Gershon, MD, Ph.D., of the UNC School of Medicine, have discovered a combination therapy to treat medulloblastoma – a brain tumor more commonly diagnosed in children. In the United States, there are more than 3,800 people living with the fast-growing disease, according to the National Cancer Institute. “Patients with medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in children, need new therapies,” Sokolsky-Papkov said. “The current standard treatment for medulloblastoma with surgery, craniospinal radiation, and chemotherapy cures about 80% of patients, but causes disabling long-term effects, including neurocognitive impairment, hearing loss, … Read more
READDI receives $18 million in North Carolina state appropriations to advance antiviral therapeutics research
February 11, 2022The North Carolina General Assembly has allocated $18 million in its latest approved budget for the Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative (READDI) program, a global public-private partnership founded by the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, School of Medicine, the Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, and the Structural Genomics Consortium. READDI was created to generate new broad-spectrum antiviral therapies to save lives in the current pandemic and to prevent emerging threats from becoming global catastrophes. The state funds will allow READDI to build out a small management team, including the initial hire of a … Read more
Team led by Shawn Hingtgen, Ph.D., Jillian Perry, Ph.D., receive $2.2 million from NIH to pursue therapies that suppress glioblastoma tumor recurrences after surgery
February 9, 2022With the help of a $2.2 million RO1 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, Shawn Hingtgen, Ph.D., will work to pursue therapies that suppress glioblastoma tumor recurrences after surgery. Glioblastoma is one of the most treatment-resistant, complex and deadly cancers, according to the National Brain Tumor Society. The disease accounts for 48 percent of all primary malignant brain tumors, with more than 13,000 people in the United States diagnosed each year. Each year, 10,000 Americans die from the disease. Over the next five years, Hingtgen will work with Co-PI Jillian Perry, Ph.D., assistant professor in UNC’s Center … Read more
Leading research and discovery in our state — 2022 Impact Award recipients
February 4, 2022The Graduate School has named eleven graduate students as recipients of its 2022 Impact Award, generously supported by its Graduate Education Advancement Board, which showcase graduate students and recent graduate alumni whose research contributes to the educational, economic, physical, social or cultural well-being of North Carolina communities and citizens. The eleven students, whose research interests range from car crash risk to the migration of fish, come from many areas of campus, including from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. They all have one thing in common: a commitment to service and to improving the lives of North Carolinians. Chancellor Kevin … Read more
UNC-Chapel Hill scientists, researchers named 2021 AAAS fellows
February 3, 2022Four University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty members have been elected 2021 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This year’s class of 564 scientists, engineers and innovators were selected by their peers for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements, according to the AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. It is one of the most distinct honors within the scientific community. The new UNC-Chapel Hill fellows, which include two from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, are: Stephen V. Frye, the Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor at the UNC … Read more
Taylor family, Piedmont Health, Apexus unite to honor alumni’s life
February 1, 2022UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy alumni Carl Taylor (’68) spent each day as a pharmacist serving patients in need and ensuring equal access to outstanding healthcare for all. Carl passed away suddenly in September 2021, but his legacy of advancing pharmacy practice and always exhibiting kindness prevails. For those who didn’t have the honor of knowing Carl personally, he was a man of uncommon kindness, a dedicated pharmacist, lifelong learner, committed advocate for equal access to education and healthcare, and fervent fan of his beloved UNC. For the past 20 years, Carl served as the Director of Pharmacy Services at … Read more