Category: Research
Three Faculty Members Receive Awards
December 4, 2007Three junior faculty members at the UNC School of Pharmacy have received awards from the University. Craig Lee, PhD, and Qisheng Zhang, PhD, each received a $7,500 Junior Faculty Development Award from the Committee on Faculty Research and Study Leaves. X. Simon Wang, PhD, received a $4,500 University Research Council Award. Lee is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Pharmaceutics. He received both his doctor of pharmacy degree and his PhD from the School, and he has been a member of the faculty since 2006. His research examines the role of genomics in the development, progression, … Read more
Former GSK Exec to Lead UNC Drug Discovery Center
October 12, 2007Stephen Frye, PhD, former worldwide head of discovery, medicinal chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, will lead the new Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “The days when large pharmaceutical companies could be solely relied on to effectively translate basic research into new medicines are passing,” Frye said. “Academic science will have to rise to the challenge.” Frye is co-inventor of GSK’s Avodart, a drug used to shrink an enlarged prostate gland that is also under study for prevention of prostate cancer. Prior to his most recent role at GSK, his department … Read more
J. Liu Creates New Form of Synthetic Heparin
September 21, 2007Researchers at the UNC School of Pharmacy have patented a synthetic version of the drug heparin, called Recomparin, that is less complex chemically and should be easier to produce than previous forms. Led by Jian Liu, PhD, scientists in the UNC School of Pharmacy discovered that they could remove a complex element from the heparin molecule without altering the drug’s function. The component, a single sugar called iduronic acid, is difficult to replicate and was long thought to be an important contributor to heparin’s function as an anticoagulant, Liu says. “We proved we don’t really need that structure for the … Read more
Chemical Biology Expert David Lawrence Joins School Faculty
September 7, 2007David Lawrence, PhD, a leading expert in the field of chemical biology, has joined the faculty of the UNC School of Pharmacy. Before joining the School’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, Lawrence spent eleven years as a professor of biochemistry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York. Before that, he was at the State University of New York at Buffalo for ten years. He received his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. The School of Pharmacy collaborated with the Department of Chemistry, the School of Medicine, and the Lineberger Comprehensive … Read more
IPIT Study Questions FDA Genetic-Screening Guidelines for Cancer Drug
August 27, 2007Not everyone needs a genetic test before taking the cancer drug irinotecan, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should modify its prescription guidelines to say so, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Irinotecan, also known by its brand name Camptosar, is used mainly as a second-line treatment for colorectal cancer. The FDA recommends screening patients for a gene that could make them more susceptible to the harmful side effects of the drug, the most worrisome of which is neutropenia, an abnormally low number of white blood cells. In a paper published in the … Read more
Craig Lee Receives Grant from American Heart Association
July 17, 2007Craig Lee, PhD, an assistant professor at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has received a $132,000 beginning grant-in-aid from the American Heart Association. Lee will use the two-year grant, titled “P450 Epoxygenase Pathway and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease”, to study the relationship between genetic variation in the cytochrome P450 epoxygenase pathway and mechanisms underlying the risk of cardiovascular disease. Cytochromes P450 are a metabolic enzyme family present throughout the body. The pathway Lee is studying is active in the cardiovascular system and forms epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (also known as EETs), which dilate blood vessels and have anti-inflammatory effects. About ten to twenty-five … Read more
NIH Funds Paine’s Search for a Cranberry Juice Effect
July 17, 2007Mary Paine, PhD, has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to explore interactions between foods and drugs. “We know a great deal about drug-drug interactions but comparatively little about how foods and other natural products interact with drugs,” Paine says. “Typically, the only thing patients are told about food and their medicine is whether or not they should take their pills with a meal.” Paine is interested in foods that can contribute to what has come to be called “the grapefruit juice effect.” Since the early 1990s, researchers have known that chemical compounds in grapefruit … Read more
Sleath Survey: New Mothers Often Not Asked about Depression
May 31, 2007The majority of doctors in North Carolina are unlikely to probe for signs of postpartum depression in new mothers, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Of the 228 physicians responding to the survey who said they had seen women for postpartum visits in the previous three months, 79 percent said they were unlikely to formally screen the patients for depression. An estimated 13 percent of new mothers are affected by postpartum depression. The study will be published June 6 in the North Carolina Medical Journal. “We believe that it is … Read more
Murray Study: Heart-Failure Patients Benefit from Pharmacist Care
May 14, 2007Heart-failure patients take their medicine more reliably when under the care of a pharmacist, resulting in fewer emergency-room visits and hospital stays and lower health-care costs, according to a study led by Michael D. Murray, PhD, the Mescal S. Ferguson Distinguished Professor at the School. According to the American Heart Association, more than five million people in the United States are in various stages of heart failure with total health-care costs exceeding $29 billion. The study, published in the June 2007 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, studied 314 low-income patients with heart failure. The participants were studied as … Read more
Farley Receives Pfizer Grant
May 4, 2007Joel Farley, PhD, an assistant professor at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has received a two-year, $130,000 grant from Pfizer Inc. for his research on the effect of Medicaid prescription restrictions on patients with mental illnesses. Farley, who is in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, received the 2007 Scholars Grant in Health Policy. The supporting sponsor on the grant is Susan Blalock, PhD, Farley’s mentor and an associate professor in the division. The grant is part of Pfizer’s Medical & Academic Partnerships program, which is intended to support the career development of junior faculty. Farley will use his … Read more