Jacqueline Bezençon, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Her research interests are disease- and drug-mediated alterations in transport of drugs and endogenous compounds and its impact on drug disposition and toxicity.
Drug Optimization: PhD Program
Working from bench to bedside
The Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics has the unique responsibility within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy to provide classroom and clinical instruction for pharmacy students in the practice of pharmacy and to train graduate and postgraduate scientists in the principles of translational research. We engage in innovative teaching and research, preparing our students to be professional and scientific leaders.
Our PhD program develops scientists who excel at conducting innovative and clinically relevant translational research that integrates biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in a laboratory- and computer-based environments that leverage preclinical and clinical investigations.
We generate and disseminate new knowledge in pharmacotherapy and accelerate its application to improve patient care through:
- Delivering innovative education and training
- Integrating experimental and clinical pharmacology discoveries into the practice of precision medicine
- Unique collaborations with industry, regulatory agencies, renowned health science centers, and international entities
- Leading and participating in local, state, national and international organizations, communities, and programs.
- Engaging students in innovative clinical and translational research
Tracks for Clinicians and Non-Clinicians
The concentration area in pharmacotherapy and experimental therapeutics was developed with two curricular tracks based on previous experience of the applicant:
- Clinician track: for students with a Pharm.D. or M.D., or equivalent
- Nonclinician track: for highly motivated, exceptionally qualified students lacking previous clinical training
Areas of coursework and research
- Drug metabolism and transport
- Pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics/pharmacometrics
- Pharmacogenomics
- Clinical research
- Experimental therapeutics
- Mechanisms of drug toxicity
These are applied to therapeutic areas, including:
- cardiovascular disease,
- hepatology/gastroenterology/transplant,
- infectious disease/HIV,
- oncology/hematology, and
- pulmonary disease.
Graduates from both tracks have enjoyed an outstanding employment rate in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry.
DPET Fellowship and Graduate Student Webinar
Watch HereCurriculum
Faculty and Staff
Our faculty include clinical practitioners who bring insights from the patient-care setting to their teaching, translational research, and professional service activities. Many of our faculty hold joint appointments in the UNC School of Medicine, the Department of Pharmacy at the UNC Medical Center, and other allied health schools. They lend their expertise through speaking engagements and memberships on advisory panels and committees, and play important roles in local, state, national, and international organizations.
DPET Primary Faculty
Kim L. R. Brouwer
RECRUITING GRADUATE STUDENTS
Kim L.R. Brouwer, Pharm.D., Ph.D., is the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, associate dean for research and graduate education, and a professor in the curriculum in toxicology.
Yanguang Cao
RECRUITING GRADUATE STUDENTS
Yanguang Cao, Ph.D., joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor in the division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. He received his Ph.D. at China Pharmaceutical University. Prior to joining the School, Cao served as a research assistant professor at SUNY Buffalo for two years after completing a postdoctoral training program at SUNY, Buffalo.
Rachel Church
Rachel Church, Ph.D., researches ways to broaden the use and understanding of newer biomarkers by leading the UNC Organ Injury Biomarker Core. The goal of this core is to assist investigators in all aspects of research studies in which injury to the liver, kidney, and/or heart is suspected.
Amber Cipriani
Amber.Cipriani@unchealth.unc.edu
Amber Cipriani, Pharm.D., joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapy. Proctor’s appointment is cofunded by UNC Hospitals, where she serves as a clinical oncology specialist in thoracic oncology.
Amanda Corbett
Amanda Corbett, Pharm.D., is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and the Global Pharmacology Coordinator for the UNC Institute of Global Health and Infectious Diseases. Her expertise are in HIV, antiviral, and opportunistic infection clinical pharmacy and ethnopharmacology. She has extensive experience in developing countries and more recently in integrative medicine practices.
Mackenzie Leigh Cottrell
Mackenzie Cottrell, Pharm.D., M.S. is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Her research focuses on describing pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationships in mucosal tissues for antiretrovirals being used in HIV prevention and cure interventions.
Daniel Crona
Daniel Crona, Pharm.D., Ph.D., joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in 2015. His translational research program focuses on how genetic variations can lead to differences in the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of therapeutic treatments used in oncology, and how inter-individual differences in clinical pharmacology measures can affect survival and drug toxicity phenotypes.
Julie Dumond
RECRUITING GRADUATE STUDENTS
Julie Dumond, Pharm.D., M.S., is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Her primary research interest is the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of antiretrovirals. She is currently conducting a clinical study in aging, HIV-infected subjects to explore the effects of cellular aging and frailty on antiretroviral toxicity and efficacy.
Robert Dupuis
Bob Dupuis is a professor of pharmacy in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. His responsibilities include teaching and coordinating coursework in integrative pharmacotherapy, clinical pharmacology, nephrology and transplant pharmacotherapeutics. Dupuis is also Director of the DPET Fellowship program, and advises and works with graduate, PharmD students and fellows on their research endeavors.
Amber Frick
Amber Frick, Pharm.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor with the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Her main responsibilities at the School are to develop an expertise in the implementation and assessment of new approaches to and best practices in teaching while also taking part in collaborative teaching activities.
Dong Fu
Dong Fu, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. His research interests are liver cell biology and hepatic pharmacology, especially, the cellular processes and the mechanisms that are related to hepatocyte polarization, hepatic transporters trafficking, bile acid signaling, drug-induced mitochondrial and hepatocellular injury and lipids metabolism in hepatocytes.
Daniel Gonzalez
RECRUITING GRADUATE STUDENTS
Daniel Gonzalez, Pharm.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. His research interests include pediatric clinical pharmacology and the application of mathematical modeling and simulation techniques to characterize the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs, guide dosage selection, and improve drug safety in children.
Erin Heinzen
RECRUITING GRADUATE STUDENTS
The Heinzen Lab focuses on the genetic and genomic basis of epilepsy disorders, including analyses of the role of germline mutations, somatic mutations, and how regulation of the cellular transcriptome influences the risk and presentation of seizures. In collaboration with a number of investigators in neurology, neuropathology, and neurosurgery, my group is to studies the role of somatic mutations in epilepsy and other neurological diseases.
Federico Innocenti
Dr. Innocenti’s NIH-funded research program is currently focused on the discovery of genomic determinants of efficacy and toxicity of cancer chemotherapy, integrating clinical genomic investigation with functional evaluation of gene variation.
Klarissa Dawniette Jackson
Klarissa Jackson joined the faculty at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Jackson obtained her B.S. in chemistry from Jackson State University and her Ph.D. in pharmacology from Vanderbilt University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry under the mentorship of Drs. Allan Rettie and Sidney Nelson. Prior to joining the faculty at UNC, Jackson was as an assistant professor at Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University.
Angela Kashuba
Dr. Kashuba’s research focuses on the clinical pharmacology of drugs used in the treatment, prevention, and cure of HIV infection. She is working on optimizing dosing strategies for HIV prevention including the role of sex and ethnicity, characterizing drug distribution in putative viral reservoirs using mass spectrometry imaging, determining predictors of drug tissue distribution, and developing in vitro models for optimizing combination therapy for HIV cure.
Craig Lee
RECRUITING GRADUATE STUDENTS
Craig Lee, Pharm.D, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. His research focuses on cytochrome P450 metabolism, cardiovascular experimental therapeutics, and precision medicine/pharmacogenomics.
Matthew Loop, Ph.D.
Matthew Loop, PhD is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, with expertise in biostatistics, population health, and cardiovascular disease. His research uses Bayesian multilevel modeling, spatial statistics, and machine learning to understand patterns in data.
Andrew Lucas
Dr. Lucas, Pharm.D., M.S. is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and has been involved in cancer research for over 11 years, and translational/clinical studies of anti-cancer agents for greater than 7 years. His translational research program focuses on how functional variations in innate immunity can lead to differences in the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of therapeutic treatments with high inter-patient variability used in oncology (such as monoclonal antibodies or drug conjugates). In addition, he has been highly trained to perform the detailed analytical and pharmacology studies required for the translational development of targeted agents.
Merrie Mosedale
Merrie Mosedale, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Mosedale is also the assistant director of the Institute for Drug Safety Sciences where she leads the Translational Pharmacogenomics Research Program. Through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and academic scientists, Mosedale is working to solve safety problems by integrating cutting-edge pharmacogenomics approaches with novel in vivo, in vitro, and in silico platforms. Her goal is to develop pioneering new technologies that will impact regulatory decisions and policies.
Benyam Muluneh
Benyam Muluneh, Pharm.D., is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Muluneh coordinates a course in the integrative pharmacotherapy series and teaches in several PharmD courses. His research interests include optimization of pharmacotherapy in leukemias through the precision dosing initiative and a multidimensional approach to understanding and improving adherence to oral oncolytics. Muluneh also leads the school’s collaborations with Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia with a focus on hematology/oncology including serving as a GPS preceptor.
Herb Patterson
Herb Patterson, Pharm.D., is a professor and the interim chair of the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and a research professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His clinical research focuses on drugs used in heart failure.
Adam M Persky
Adam Persky is a professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. He teaches physiology and pharmacokinetics. His research focuses on translating the science of learning and memory into practical application in the classroom and experiential settings.
A. Wayne Pittman
Wayne Pittman, M.S. Pharm, is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and is the Associate Dean for Facilities Planning and Resource Analysis for the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. His research focuses on the clinical and patients’ use of medications used in treating hypertension.
Gauri Rao
RECRUITING GRADUATE STUDENTS
Gauri Rao, Pharm.D., M.S., is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experiential Therapeutics. Rao’s principal research interests surround quantitative systems pharmacology, and she is working to understand the processes of infectious diseases.
Jo Ellen Rodgers
Jo Ellen Rodgers, Pharm.D., is a professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and serves as associate director of clinical fellowship programs. Rodgers’ primary research interest is in the care of heart failure patients.
Elias Rosen
Dr. Rosen’s research focuses on the development of methods to measure intracellular distribution of therapeutics and their metabolites in a variety of biological matrices using mass spectrometry imaging. He is currently quantifying the penetration of drugs relevant to HIV treatment and eradication into putative viral reservoirs, and combining this approach with traditional imaging modalities to evaluate efficacy of experimental treatment regimens.
Deborah Sturpe
Deborah Sturpe, PharmD, MA, BCPS is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. Her primary responsibilities in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy include didactic teaching, ambulatory care practice, and investigating how to best teach and assess students. In particular, she is interested in PharmD curricular revision and curricular/program assessment planning as well as best practices in competency education and performance-based assessment. Dr. Sturpe also serves as Associate Editor for Manuscript Quality for the journal Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning.
Michael Wagner
Paul B. Watkins
Paul Watkins, M.D., is director of the Institute for Drug Safety Sciences at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Howard Q. Ferguson Distinguished Professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics.
Dennis Williams
Dennis Williams, Pharm.D., is an associate professor and the vice chair for professional education and practice for the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics.
Tim Wiltshire
Tim Wiltshire, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and Director of the UNC Center for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy. The major focus of his laboratory and CPIT is to take the pharmacogenetic knowledge we already have and develop approaches for that information to be used effectively in clinical practice.
William Zamboni
William Zamboni, Pharm.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is the director of UNC GLP Bioanalytical Facility and the director of the Translational Oncology and Nanoparticle Drug Development Initiative (TOND2I) Lab. His research interests focus on the application of pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and pharmacogenetic principles in the optimization of the chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer.
DPET Joint Appointments
Lisa M. Tarantino
The research in Dr. Tarantino’s laboratory is focused on identification and characterization of genes that influence behavior. In particular, they study mouse models of addiction, anxiety, stress and depression-like behaviors.
DPET Research Faculty
DPET Adjunct Faculty
Kirkwood Adams, MD
Adams is an associate professor of medicine and radiology at the University of North Carolina. He specializes in heart failure, nuclear cardiology, cardiac transplantation, and general cardiology.
Hugh A. Barton, PhD
Barton currently works as a consultant for Barton Systems Pharmacology and Toxicology. His area of expertise includes translational modeling and stimulation, pharmacokinetics, and dynamics and metabolism.
Danny Benjamin, MD, PhD, MPH, Kiser-Arena Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics
Benjamin’s research group pioneered much of the methods in completing pharmacokinetic and safety trials in premature infants. His group has since expanded to the study of therapeutics in children of all ages and most therapeutic areas as evidenced by >300 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
William Brock, PhD
Brock has expertise and experience with non-clinical safety program study design, conduct, interpretation and reporting for a broad range of xenobiotics.
Gilbert Burckart, PharmD
Burkhart is the associate director of pediatrics in the office of clinical pharmacology at the US Food and Drug Administration.
Scott Clark, PhD
Clark, of SCSClark Networks, specializes in pharmacogenomics.
Michael Cohen-Wolkowiez, MD, PhD
Cohen-Wolkowiez is a professor of Pediatrics at Duke University. His areas of expertise include minimal-risk methods including bioanalytical, PK/PD modeling, and clinical trial design to advance pediatric drug development.
Austin Combest, PharmD, BCOP, MBA
Combest is the senior director of Clinical Science and Information for PPD’s Strategic Development Consulting group and head of the clinical science department at PPD. His therapeutic area of expertise is in hematology/oncology, with a strong background in immune-oncology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacology, pharmaceutics, nanoparticles, biologics, biosimilars, epidemiology, and pharmacogenomics. He has experience with all phases of drug development from preclinical to Phase IV.
Ronald Fleming, PharmD
Fleming’s research area is oncology and provides expertise in the pharmaceutical industry.
John Edgar French, PhD
French is involved in research collaborations with DPET in the area of toxicology, genetics, and nutrient impact on experimental therapies for cancer.
Giulia Ghibellini, PhD
Ghibellini is a director of clinical pharmacology at Teva Pharmaceuticals (Specialty Products) and the team leader for the Clinical Pharmacology group in the US. Her research expertise is in the fields of pharmacokinetics and clinical pharmacology.
Roberto Gomeni, PhD, HDR
Gomeni is the former global head of pharmacometrics for GlaxoSmithKline. His experience includes the development of novel pharmacometrics methodologies for improving efficiency of placebo-controlled clinical trials of antidepressant drugs, analyzing data of clinical trials, and for developing a disease progression model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Alison H. Harrill, PhD
Harrill is a geneticist at the National Toxicology Program (NIH/NIEHS). Her area of research covers systems toxicology, pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine, and biomarkers.
Alan Higgins, PhD
Higgins, of Baskerville Consulting, is an expert in the field of preclinical drug development.
Howard L. McLeod, PharmD
McLeod’s research is focused on pharmacogenomics and individualized therapy. He is affiliated with Moffitt Cancer Center.
Alison A. Motsinger-Reif, PhD
Motsinger-Reif’s research at North Carolina State University is focused on pharmacogenetics and bioinformatics.
Jai Narendra Patel, PharmD
Patel is the chief of Pharmacology Research in the Department of Cancer Pharmacology and an associate professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Atrium Health’s Levine Cancer Institute. Patel oversees cancer pharmacology and pharmacogenomics research.
Nita Patel, PhD
Patel is a senior research advisor at Eli Lilly and Company. Dr. Patel has 20+ years of drug discovery and development experience optimizing compounds for drug metabolism/transporter interactions, pharmacokinetics and understanding PKPD relationships in pharmacology.
Kenneth Phares, PhD
Phares has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, specifically in the areas of pre-formulation, formulation development, and bioanalytical method development.
Mathew T. Pletcher, PhD
Pletcher is the head of Rare Disease Discovery at Roche. His research is focused on genetics, pharmacogenomics, drug development, and genomic medicine.
Bob Powell, PharmD
Powell is a clinical pharmacologist who is interested in developing better dosing strategies in emerging markets with the goal of making drugs safer and more effective.
Virginia Schmith, PhD, FCP
Schmith provides expert consulting in clinical development and pharmacometric strategies for compounds from candidate selection through registration and beyond; development, implementation, and interpretation of strategies for PK/PD and modeling and simulation; participating in regulatory meetings; and evaluating the probability of successful differentiation from competitors.
Todd Schwartz, DrPH
Schwartz is an associate professor of biostatistics at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. His efforts are focused on supporting various research projects across Health Affairs at UNC with regard to their biostatistical aspects, including consultation on design, conduct, analysis, and dissemination.
Russell Thomas, PhD
Thomas is the director for the EPA’s National Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure. His research is focused on developing more efficient ways to evaluate the safety of chemicals.
Jian Wang, PhD, MSRS, FCP
Wang is an associate director for regulatory science in Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He has many years of working experience in drug development, clinical pharmacology, and regulatory science.
Daniel Weiner, PhD
Weiner is a private drug development consult and a part-time faculty with DPET. His expertise is in the field of pharmacometrics and pharmaceutical biostatistics.
Maciej Jan Zamek-Gilszczynski, PhD
Zamek-Gilszczynski is a senior fellow and director at GlaxoSmithKline. His research focuses on clinical drug development.
Darryl C. Zeldin, MD
Zeldin is the NIEHS Scientific Director and is responsible for one of the largest intramural research programs at the NIH with over 1000 scientists in 10 Departments and 15 Core Facilities, and an annual budget of over $130M. He is an internationally recognized expert on eicosanoids (lipid mediators) and their role in regulating cardiovascular function, and on environmental causes of asthma.
Zhiyang Zhao, PhD
Zhao is the chief scientific officer at Alliance Pharma. His area of research is pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism.
DPET Emeritus Faculty
James Heyward Hull
James Heyward Hull, Pharm.D., M.S., is a professor emeritus with the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. He has expertise in design of clinical drug trials, optimization of study efficiency through better design & analysis strategies and techniques for analysis of concentration-response data.
Dhiren Thakker
Dhiren Thakker, Ph.D., is an emeritus professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. He is also a researcher focusing on drug absorption and metabolism, as well as a start-up entrepreneur.
DPET Primary Staff
August 2019
- Gauri Rao has received an NIH R01 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Her project is titled “Pharmacology of intrathecal/intraventricular polymyxins: A systems-based approach.”
- Gauri Rao has received a Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) supplement award for a project entitled, “The Relationship between Pyrazinamide Pharmacokinetics, Tuberculosis Disease, and Host Immune Responses.”
- Craig Lee has been selected to participate as an author on the CYP2C19/clopidogrel Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) guideline update.
- Dan Crona and Mackenzie Cottrell have both received NIH Loan Repayment Programs Awards. This award is designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers.
June 2019
- Kim Brouwer was distinguished as Inventor of the Year during the 2019 UNC Celebration of Inventorship. The UNC Office of Technology Commercialization presents the Inventor of the Year Award to a UNC-Chapel Hill innovator in recognition of their contributions to inventions and patents. The award honors the recipient’s commitment to the University’s culture of encouraging innovation, disseminating knowledge, and promoting entrepreneurship.
- Dan Crona has received a Translational Tier 2 Eshelman Institute for Innovation Award for his project entitled, “Chemically catalyzed epigenetic gene regulation in prostate cancer.”
- Merrie Mosedale has received an NIH R21 from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs and is entitled, “Development of an in vitro mouse genetic reference platform to improve preclinical drug safety assessment.” The goal of the research is to evaluate the utility of an in vitro platform developed from the Collaborative Cross mouse population to improve preclinical safety assessment and identify interspecies differences in drug toxicity between animals and humans.
- Rachel Church won the best poster award at the AASLD-FDA Drug-Induced Liver Injury Conference for the most outstanding DILI poster.
May 2019
- Jo Ellen Rodgers has been selected to be a member of the American Heart Association, Cardio-Oncology Science Subcommittee.
- Daisy Zhu, a 2nd-year graduate student in the Crona Lab, was selected to represent UNC in the fifth Annual Duke/UNC National Case Competition. This year, the case was to advise the CEO of a small- to mid-sized biotech company on how to pursue an indication for the recently developed dual-acting CAR-T asset based on commercial and marketing analysis. They won the local/regional competition and advanced to the national competition. Dr. Zhu was also selected for the T32 Hematology training grant. She is the first PharmD ever selected over the last 40 years.
April 2019
- Dan Crona has received a HOPA Early Career Research Grant for his project entitled: “Precision Dosing of TKIs for Real World Patients with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia”. The HOPA Early Career Research Grant (ECR) provides funding to promising investigators early in their career to encourage and promote quality basic and pre-clinical translational lab-based research in oncology.
- Amanda Corbett has been selected to participate in the Mary Frances Picciano Dietary Supplement Research Practicum through the Office of Dietary Supplements. This intensive practicum will provide a thorough overview and grounding about issues, concepts, unknowns, and controversies about dietary supplements and supplement ingredients. It will also emphasize the importance of scientific investigations to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and value of these products for health promotion and disease prevention as well as how to carry out this type of research.
- Mackenzie Cottrell has received a 12 on her R21 NIH/NIAID grant application. The title of the submitted grant is “Feminizing Sex Hormones Impact on PrEP Pharmacology in Transgender Women”.
- Paavo Honkakoski, a global expert on nuclear receptors, has returned to the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a recipient of the Nannerl O. Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professorship in 2019-20. Honkakoski is a professor of Biopharmacy at the School of Pharmacy and Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland. DPET is serving as the sponsoring unit for Prof. Honkakoski’s visit.
- Rachel Tyson’s, a T32 Clinical Pharmacology Fellow with Herb Patterson, proposal to The Sternfels Prize for Drug Safety Discoveries was ranked in the top 30 proposals. The Sternfels Prize was created to encourage scientists to find ways to minimize prescription drugs risks of side effects. It is awarded annually to the most important and testable idea to reduce life-threatening drug related interactions.
- Jackie Gerhart, a 2nd year graduate student in the Gonzalez Lab, had an abstract accepted for the 2019 Pediatric Academic Society meeting and took 1st place in the International Healthcare Case Competition.
- Kaitlyn Maffuid, a 1st year graduate student in the Crona Lab, has received a TraCS $2K grant award for her project entitled “Chemically Catalyzed Epigenetic Repression of the MYC Gene as a New Therapeutic Paradigm in Cancer”.
February 2019
- Federico Innocenti has received supplemental funding from the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Foundation in support of his work associated with Alliance protocol CALGB 80802, “A Phase III Randomized Study of Sorafenib plus Doxorubicin versus Sorafenib in Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) – CALGB 80802 and Correlative Substudy – CALGB 150902.”
- Jim Beaudoin, a 4th year graduate student the Brouwer Lab, has received a NIH F31 fellowship grant for 2 yrs. of funding from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. His project is entitled “Elucidating the Role of Organic Solute Transporter (OST) Alpha/Beta in Bile Acid Transport and Drug Interactions.”
January 2019
- Dan Crona received a Junior Faculty Development Award. His project is entitled, “Evaluation of combined PARP and BET inhibition in preclinical models of urothelial bladder cancer.”
- Olivia Dong, a 5th year graduate student in the Wiltshire Lab, earned the award for Best Student Podium Research Presentation during the ISPOR Europe 2018 meeting in Barcelona. Her presentation was entitled “Cv1: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Multi-Gene Pharmacogenetic Testing in Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients Following Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.”
November 2018
- Herb Patterson, Bob Powell, Benyam Muluneh and Yaning Wang (FDA), members of the DPET Precision Dosing Initiative, gave an exceptional program entitled, “Precision Dosing: Better Drug Dosing for All Patients – Learn How YOU Can Participate in Addressing a Significant Therapeutic Problem” at the 2018 ACCP Global Conference on Clinical Pharmacy in Seattle, WA. The program was well received and generated interest in the initiative. http://www.pageturnpro.com/CustomNEWS/87142-ACCP-Global-Conference–Monday/index.html#1
- Heather Prince, a clinical coordinator in the Kashuba Lab, was named to the North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants on their Executive Board for 2019 as part of the Professional Review Developmental Panel to serve the state’s Continuing Education Initiatives for PAs.
- Jing “Daisy” Zhu, a 1st year graduate student in the Crona Lab, was selected by the 2018 PharmSci 360 Programming Committee for a 15-min Rapid Fire presentation. Her presentation is titled, “Development of a population pharmacokinetic model to characterize cocaine and metabolites behavior in mice.”
- Jesse Martin, PY4 PharmD student in RASP program in the Lee Lab, has been selected as a recipient of the ASCPT 2019 Presidential Trainee Award in recognition of his abstract titled “CYP2C19 Genotype-Guided Escalation and De-Escalation Switching of Antiplatelet Therapy After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in a Real-World Setting.” In addition, Jesse has also been selected to receive the 2019 Jason Morrow Trainee Award, which recognizes the second highest scoring trainee abstract and includes a $1,000 prize, commemorative plaque, and complimentary registration to the Annual Meeting.
October 2018
- Bill Zamboni was awarded a 2nd NCI UM1 administrative supplement entitled, “Pharmacological studies of the mononuclear phagocyte system as part of the clinical studies of anetumab ravtansine: Analysis of Samples”.
- Bill Zamboni also received an R43 / SBIR with CBT Pharma for a project titled, “Combination of checkpoint inhibitors”.
- Julie Dumond was awarded an R21 from the NIH National Institute on Aging for a project titled, “Effects of Aging and Inflammation on Intracellular Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Pharmacology in the WIHS Cohort”.
September 2018
- Danny Gonzalez, PharmD, PhD, has received a NIH R01 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. His project is titled “Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling to Guide Drug Dosing in Children with Obesity”.
- Dan Crona, PharmD, PhD, has received ACCP RI Futures Grant Junior Investigator Award. The project name is “A Prospective Multi-dose Study of Apixaban in Nephrotic Syndrome Patients.”
- Gauri Rao, PharmD, MS, has been selected to host a 2019 ASCPT The proposal is similar to the game challenge session hosted last year, where the goal is to use modeling to help solve a clinical question relevant to one of the funding agencies (e.g., Gates Foundation or Critical Path Institute).
- Noora Sjostedt, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Brouwer Lab, has been awarded a continuation of her postdoc research funding from the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation for the year 2019. The Finnish Sigrid Jusélius Foundation is a private foundation that supports Finnish medical research and the international mobility of researchers.
- Bill Zamboni was awarded a 2nd NCI UM1 administrative supplement entitled, “Pharmacological studies of the mononuclear phagocyte system as part of the clinical studies of anetumab ravtansine: Analysis of Samples”.
- Bill Zamboni also received an R43 / SBIR with CBT Pharma for a project titled, “Combination of checkpoint inhibitors”.
- Julie Dumond was awarded an R21 from the NIH National Institute on Aging for a project titled, “Effects of Aging and Inflammation on Intracellular Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Pharmacology in the WIHS Cohort”.
August 2018
- Amanda Corbett, PharmD, has been appointed as Assistant Dean for the Professional Curriculum effective August 1, 2018. As Assistant Dean for Professional Curriculum, Amanda will work closely with the faculty, practitioners, students, and leadership to ensure integration of curricular innovations into the professional curriculum and seamless implementation of the residential, experiential, global, and rural components of the curriculum.
- Kim Brouwer, PharmD, PhD, and Carter Cao, PhD, have received an Equipment Supplement Award in the amount of $139,913 from NIGMS to purchase a Nikon Ti2 Inverted Microscope for their research.
- Raju Khatri, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dr. Lee’s Lab, received an American Heart Association 2018 Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. His project is titled, “Predicting maternal changes in antihypertensive drug metabolism and exposure during pregnancy.”
June/July 2018
- Danny Gonzalez, PharmD, PhD, was invited to serve on NICHD Strategic Planning Working Group. This is a great opportunity to interact with NICHD staff and other experts within the pediatrics research community.
- Bill Zamboni, PharmD, PhD, received a R01 grant from NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for his project entitled, “Overcoming anti-PEG immunity to restore prolonged circulation and efficacy of PEGylated therapeutics” with Dr. Sam Lai.
- Adam Persky received a $4000 AACP grant to help support Yanying Yang’s RASP project, “Use of worked examples and problem solving to teach clinical note writing”
- Heyward Hull, PharmD, M.S., recently received the 2018 Fred M. Eckel Pharmacy Leadership Award from the UNC Medical Center Department of Pharmacy.
May 2018
- Dennis Williams, PharmD, received the Overall Instructor of the Year award for the second year in a row at the 2018 Awards Ceremony. Dennis was also recognized as the Most Engaged Preceptor at the PY4 (weekly) Weekly Seminar for the Chapel Hill Region.
- Jo Ellen Rodgers, PharmD, BCPS-AQ Cardiology, FCCP, FNAP, FHFSA, FAHA received the PY2 Instructor of the Year award at the 2018 Awards Ceremony.
- Olivia Dong, MPH, has has been funded for her pre-doctoral fellowship for the next fiscal year from the American Heart Association. The amount of the fellowship is $26,844.
April 2018
- Kim L.R. Brouwer, Pharm.D., Ph.D., has been named as the recipient of the 2018 ASCPT-FDA William Abrams Lecture Award. Brouwer’s lecture is titled, “Altered Hepatic Transport Due to Liver Disease and Drug Interactions: Implications for Drug Development” and will take place on Wednesday, May 23.
- Angela Kashuba, Pharm.D., was selected as one of the two Featured Speakers for the ASCPT 2018 Annual Meeting. Her presentation occurred at the meeting in Orlando at the end of March.
- Mac Gilliland, Ph.D., (Post-Doc Research Associate – Kashuba Lab) has been selected as a recipient of a 2018 ASMS Post-Doctoral Career Development Award. The amount of the award is $10,000. This award will be presented at the ASMS annual conference in June in San Diego.
- Erika Giblin, Pharm.D., (Heart Failure Academic Fellow – Patterson) received first place at the 2018 ACC Scientific Sessions, Pharmacist Poster and Platform Session in Orlando, FL. She presented the preliminary data from the DOAC Study as a platform presentation.
- Olivia Dong, MPH, (4th Year Graduate Student – Wiltshire Lab) was 100 women out of 741 nominees selected to receive a $15,000 P.E.O. Scholar Award for the 2018-2019 academic year. Dong was also nominated for and accepted as a member of the Frank Porter Graham Honor Society.
March 2018
- Yanguang “Carter” Cao, Ph.D., received an administrative supplement to his R35 Outstanding Investigator Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to create a platform to optimize antibody-based therapy.
- Nithya Srinivas (4th Year Graduate Student – Kashuba Lab) and Izna Ali, Pharm.D., (4th Year Graduate Student – Brouwer Lab) have received Khalid Ishaq Travel Awards based on their upcoming conferences and proposals.
- Olivia Dong, MPH, (4th Year Graduate Student – Wiltshire Lab) has been named as the recipient of the School’s Kathryne A. Brewington Graduate Student Research Award for 2017. She also received the 2018 Travel Grant from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
February 2018
- Herbert Patterson, Pharm.D., has been named director of the Bill and Karen Campbell Faculty Mentoring Program.
- Paul Watkins, M.D., is the recipient of the 2018 American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Division for Toxicology Career Award. The award will be presented during the ASPET Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2018 in San Diego, California in April.
- Craig Lee, Pharm.D., Ph.D., is part of one of the seven research teams chosen to develop comprehensive proposals as part of the first round of the Creativity Hubs initiative, launched in October in support of the University’s Blueprint for Next strategic framework. Please visit the program website to learn more about these innovative projects and creative teams.
- Adam Persky, Ph.D., has been promoted to Clinical Professor.
- Olivia Dong, MPH, (4th Year Graduate Student – Wiltshire Lab) received the Emerging Dietetic Leader Award from Durham-Chapel Hill Dietetic Association.
January 2018
- Jacqueline Bezençon, PhD (Postdoctoral Research Associate – Brouwer lab) was named as the recipient of the Irma Tschudi-Steiner Award 2017 for the best female pharmaceutical sciences PhD thesis at the University of Basel.
December 2017
- Amanda Corbett, Pharm.D., was among the winners of this year’s Chancellor’s Faculty Entrepreneurship Workshop
- Aaron Devanathan (1st year graduate student – Kashuba Lab) was selected as the People’s Choice Award winner at the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition on November 1. Additionally, Aaron has become board certified by the American Association of HIV practitioners (AAHIVP).
- Olivia Dong, (4th year Graduate Student – Wiltshire lab) received a UNC Graduate Student Transportation Grant Award from the UNC Graduate School Fellowship Office in the amount of $1000.
- Jackie Gerhart (1st year graduate student – Gonzalez Lab) received the ASCPT Presidential Trainee Award for the abstract she submitted. She will attend the meeting and be part of a poster walkthrough on Wednesday, March 21, 2018
- Daisy Zhu (1st year graduate student – Crona lab) was featured in the November edition of the ACCP Student, Trainee, and Young Professional e-newsletter.
- Ryan Beechinor (T32 fellow, Gonzalez Lab) has passed his Board Certified Oncology Pharmacist (BCOP) examination.
October/November 2017
- Yanguang “Carter” Cao, Ph.D., has received an R35 Outstanding Investigator Grant worth $1.85 million over five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to create a platform to optimize antibody-based therapy.
- Kim L.R. Brouwer, Pharm.D., Ph.D., has received an Outstanding Investigator Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The award is a National Institutes of Health R35 Senior Investigator Award worth $2.6 million over five years.
September 2017
- Bill Zamboni’s Biomarker UM1 Grant Supplement entitled “Pharmacologic studies of the mononuclear phagocyte system as part of the clinical studies of anetumab ravtansine” has been funded.
- Cen Guo (5th year Graduate Student – Brouwer Lab) has been awarded a 2017 AAPS Graduate Student Research Award in Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, Drug Metabolism and Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Research.
- Jim Beaudoin (3rd year Graduate Student – Brouwer Lab) has been awarded $25,000 by the Eshelman Institute for Innovation (EII) for a project called “Cross-Cultural Leadership Development Committee Expansion Initiative.”
- Kevin Straughn, (PY3 – Rao Lab) who is a part of the RASP program, was awarded the ACCP RI Futures Grant Student & Resident Investigator Award.
August 2017
- Heather Prince (Kashuba Lab) has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA).
- Dennis Williams has been appointed as a member of the inaugural Infectious Diseases Pharmacy Specialty Council.
- Merrie Mosedale is one of five recipients of the 2017 Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Innovation in Regulatory Sciences Award.
- Mackenzie Cottrell’s TraCS $5k-$50k grant application titled “Does Sex Hormone Therapy Decrease TFV/FTC Active Metabolite Formation in Mucosal Tissues?” has been funded.
- Daniel Crona’s TraCS $5k-$50k grant application titled “Clinical Pharmacology of Apixaban in Nephrotic Syndrome” has been funded.
- Christoph Hornik (2nd year Graduate Student – Gonzalez Lab) has received notice that his NIH K23 award was funded.
- Nithya Srinivas (4th year Graduate Student – Kashuba Lab) is the recipient of the IAS/ANRS Lange-van Tongeren Prize for Young Investigators in the clinical sciences track from the International AIDS Society and the France Recherche Nord & Sud Sida-HIV Hépatites.
Kim Brouwer
- Pharmacokinetic Modeling of Bile Acid Disposition in Human Hepatocytes and Effects of Modulators
Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 8/15/2016-8/15/2017 - UNC-Duke-Hamner Collaborative Clinical Pharmacology Postdoctoral Training Program (2-T32-GM086330-06)
NIGMS, 7/1/2011-6/30/2021 - Mechanisms of Altered Hepatic Transport: Impact on Drug Therapy (R35 GM122576-01)
NIGMS, 04/05/2017-03/31/2022
Yanguang Cao
- Optimizing antibody-based therapy through a system platform of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and immunodynamics (1-R35-GM119661-01)
NIGMS, 8/1/2016-5/31/2021
Mackenzie Cottrell
- Pharmacokinetics Testing for CONRAD A15-137, titled Exploratory Pharmakokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Study of Oral F/TAF for the Prevention of HIB Acquisition
East Virginia Medical School, 3/15/2017-10/31/2018 - Work Order 4_Services with respect to the method development and linearity evaluation for CMX048 in mouse liver and kidney and mouse tissue sample analysis
Chimerix, Inc., 5/1/2018-10/31/18 - Morse Vorinostat Study
Bringham and Womens Hospital/NIAID, 12/1/2017-11/30/2018 - Animal Model for Testing SIV Latency Reversal Strategies
University of Pittsburgh/NIAID, 8/1/2015-1/31/2019 - Systemic Prevention of HIV in Women
Research Triangle Institute (RTI International), 7/24/2017-7/23/2020
Daniel Crona
A Prospective Multi-dose Study of Apixaban in Nephrotic Syndrome Patient
ACCP Research Institute, 9/15/18-9/14/2019
Julie Dumond
- Epigenomics of ethnic and racial disparities in ARV exposure and treatment outcomes
University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), 8/31/2017-12/31/2018
Daniel Gonzalez
- Use of Physiologically-Based PK/PD Models to Streamline Drug Approvals (5-K23-HD083465-01-03)
NICHD, 4/15/2015-2/29/2020
Angela Kashuba
- Long term persistence of HIV in the liver and the clinical impact on HIV-HBV co-infection
University of Melbourne, 11/28/2016-12/31/2019 - Multi-Species Mechanisms of Drug Bio-distribution in HIV Tissue Reservoirs (5-R01-AI111891-01-04)NIAID, 3/15/2014-2/28/2019
- Novel Mass Spectrometry Imaging Methods to Quantify Antiretroviral Adherence (5-R01-AI122319-01-02)
NIAID, 1/1/2016-12/31/2020
Merrie Mosedale
- SBIR: Standardization of a Fluidic In Vitro Exposure System for IVIVE Predictive Toxicity Data
American Heart Association (AHA), 9/19/2017-8/31/2019 - Development of an In Vitro Platform for the Evaluation of Genetic Susceptibility Factors Associated with Adverse Drug Response
Burroughs Wellcome Fund, 9/1/2017-8/31/2022
Herb Patterson
- Observational Registry of Treatment Patterns in U.S. Heart Failure Patients with Reduced Ejection Fraction
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, 5/24/2015-3/30/2020
Adam Persky
- Use of worked examples and problem solving to teach clinical note writing
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), 7/1/2018-6/30/2019
Dhiren Thakker
- Use of Human Intestinal Tissue and Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling to Predict the Pharmacokinetics of Orally Administered Amoxicillin in Adults and Infants.
PhRMA, 1/1/2017-12/31/2018
Tim Wiltshire
- Systems Toxicogenomics of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Brain (2015-3275-02)
North Carolina State University (NCSU), 6/1/2016-4/30/2017 - Genetic Etiology of Cancer Drug Response (2011-2427-05)
North Carolina State University (NCSU), 6/1/2016-4/30/2018
William Zamboni
- Quantitation of MRX-2843 and Metabolite M40 in Plasma in a Phase I Dose-Escalation Study of the Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Pharmacodynamics of MRX-2843 in Adult Subjects with Relapsed/Refractory Advanced and/or Metastatic Solid Tumors
Meryx, Inc., 2/1/2018-2/1/2019 - Separation and Quantitation of ZY-010 Drug Forms in Rat Plasma (Associated, Released-Protein-Bound and Release-unbound Paclitaxel) Dual Filter Method
ZY Therapeutics, Inc., 2/7/2017-2/6/2020 - Glolytics Exploratory Analysis to Address Whether the Mononuclear Phagocyte System (MPS)
Glolytics, LLC, 1/10/2017- 1/9/2021 - ChemoGLO – Service Agreement
ChemoGLO, LLC, 11/1/2016-10/31/2019
Current PhD Students
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Stephen Balevic
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Jessica Beers
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Aaron Devanathan
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Meethila Gade
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Estefany Garcia
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Jacqueline Gerhart
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Ricardo Gonzalez
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Patrick Hanafin
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Spinel Karas
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Ahmad Khoei
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Talisa Kinsale
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Bethany Latham
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Kaitlyn Maffuid
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Sean McCann
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William Murphy, Jr
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Erin M.B. Scholz
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Zoey Tang
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Shekhar Bhaskar Yeshwante
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Jiawei Zhou
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Daisy Zhu