July 18, 2008
Katie Theken, PharmD, a third-year graduate student at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received a pre-doctoral fellowship from the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education for the 2008-09 academic year.
The award provides Theken with a $6,000 annual stipend and is renewable for a total of three years. Theken’s research project is titled “The Role of Cytochrome P450-Mediated Eicosanoid Metabolism in Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.”
Cytochrome P450 are a metabolic enzyme family that is present throughout the body. Theken is studying the cytochrome P450 pathways responsible for forming epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and 20-hydroxyeicosateraenoic acid (20-HETE).
“EETs dilate blood vessels and are anti-inflammatory, while 20-HETE constricts blood vessels and promotes inflammation,” Theken says. “My project focuses on how inflammation influences the balance between EETs and 20-HETE in the cardiovascular system and whether these pathways might be therapeutic targets for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.”
Theken entered the PhD program in the School’s Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics in 2006 after earning a doctor of pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh. Her major adviser in DPET is Assistant Professor Craig Lee, PhD.
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