Category: Research
Bethea Receives Dissertation Completion Fellowship
April 22, 2009Heather Bethea, a graduate student at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The fellowship provides a stipend of $16,000 for the 2009-2010 academic year, as well as a tuition-and-fees scholarship for three hours of doctoral dissertation credit. Bethea entered the School’s graduate program in 2005 after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. She has been conducting research on heparan sulfate in Associate Professor Jian Liu’s lab in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products. She … Read more
Tropsha Receives UCRF Innovation Award
April 20, 2009Alex Tropsha, PhD, a professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received an Innovation Award from the University Cancer Research Fund. The award provides $100,000 over two years to support a project aimed at developing a novel virtual screening workflow to search for novel anti-cancer agents. Tropsha, an expert in computer-assisted drug discovery and the chair of the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, will use information about physicochemical and geometrical features of proteins to establish new computational methodologies that will enable researchers to efficiently and accurately cull very large chemical libraries of potential anti-cancer agents … Read more
Sleath Receives $2.65 Million Grant to Study Glaucoma Patients
April 17, 2009Betsy Sleath, PhD, a professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received a four-year, $2.65 million grant from the National Eye Institute to study how the communication between glaucoma patients and their doctors affects how well the patients take their medication and the effectiveness of the treatment. There is currently no cure for glaucoma, but it is possible to treat the disease with medication or surgery and prevent further loss of vision. However, about half the patients who start on glaucoma medications stop taking them within six months even though they should take the medications for the rest … Read more
Speakers Set for Chapel Hill Drug Conference: Nanotech Is the Topic
April 14, 2009Application of nanotechnology to cancer, siRNA delivery, infectious diseases and vaccines, imaging and diagnostics, as well as nanomaterials engineering, nanotoxicology, and regulatory considerations in obtaining FDA-approved nano-based products will be the topics of this year’s Chapel Hill Drug Conference at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The conference, titled “The Use of Nanotechnology to Create Safe and Effective Therapeutic and Diagnostic Products,” will be hosted on campus by the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and held in Kerr Hall on May 13 and 14. Nanotechnology is the control and manipulation of structures at the atomic and molecular level, … Read more
Study: Drugs Throw a Wrench into the Molecular Works of Enzymes
March 17, 2009Drugs that work by blocking the function of a protein from the outside also disrupt the protein’s internal workings, according to new research from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The discovery, made by associate professor Andrew Lee, PhD, and graduate students Randall Mauldin and Mary Carroll, is published in the March 11 issue of the journal Structure. It opens the door to the possibility of targeting proteins with drugs in new ways. The study is the first to take a comprehensive look at the changes that take place within the … Read more
Liu Receives $1.5 Million NIH Grant to Perfect Synthetic Heparin
March 2, 2009Jian Liu, PhD, an associate professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, has been awarded a four-year $1.48 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to further develop Recomparin, his synthetic version of the drug heparin. Liu’s project is titled “In vitro synthesis of recombinant heparan sulfate.” Heparan sulfate is a compound produced in the body that is similar to heparin but has weaker anticoagulant properties. Heparin can be made from heparin sulfate, and by modifying the molecular structure of the heparan sulfate he produces, Liu can customize the properties of heparin derived from it. Currently, … Read more
Study: Genetic Information Improves Warfarin Dosing
February 19, 2009Roy Fagerberg, age eighty-two, of Chapel Hill, is among more than 1.5 million Americans taking the blood thinner warfarin. The typical starting dose is five milligrams a day, but he needs only three. Two milligrams in difference are important when the drug has also been used as rat poison for fifty years. Finding the right dose of warfarin for each patient is time-consuming trial and error, but a new study by an international group that includes UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy scientists suggests that looking at a patient’s genes can speed up the process. Warfarin is tricky: the dose needed … Read more
UNC Study Asks Latinos about Sources of Medicine, Information
December 17, 2008A study by researchers at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy found that 42 percent of Latinos in North Carolina who take prescription drugs have purchased medicines at grocery stores known as tiendas and 30 percent have bought medicines from outside the United States for their own use. Researchers worry that some of those medicines are prescription drugs that are being bought without a prescription. “In Mexico and in Central and South America, there are many drugs available over the counter that you can’t get without a prescription in the U.S.,” says Betsy Sleath, PhD, lead author of the study. … Read more
Bethea Receives Off-Campus Dissertation Research Fellowship
December 4, 2008Heather Bethea, a graduate student at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received an Off-Campus Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bethea, the first student from the School to receive the fellowship, will receive a $7,350 stipend to support her study of heparan sulfate, a carbohydrate that is synthesized in mammalian cells by a series of enzymes. It is involved in many physiological functions, including regulation of cell growth and blood coagulation, and also has been found to inhibit an enzyme that enhances the onset of Alzheimer’s. Bethea’s work … Read more
School Scientists Teach Enzyme to Make Synthetic Heparin in More Varieties
November 24, 2008Scientists at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have learned to customize a key human enzyme responsible for producing heparin, opening the door to a more effective synthetic anticoagulant as well as treatments for other conditions. Jian Liu, PhD, and colleagues have learned to modify the enzyme heparan sulfate 2-O-sulfotransferase, which produces heparin in the human body in addition to other heparin-like molecules. By modifying 2-O-sulfotransferase, researchers will be able to create customized forms of synthetic heparin with different properties. “Previously it was nearly impossible to change the nature of the heparin generated by the enzyme,” says Liu, an associate … Read more