May 17, 2007
Laura Bonifacio, a second-year doctoral student at the UNC School of Pharmacy, has received a $6,000 award from the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education.
Bonifacio, who is in Assistant Professor Mike Jarstfer’s lab in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, earned an AFPE Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. The one-year award, which is given to a maximum of 70 doctoral students annually, is renewable after the first year.
The fellowships support the most exceptional doctoral students during the advanced, research phase of their course of study and enable them to focus intensively on industry-oriented subjects, such as drug development, drug delivery, pharmacoeconomoics, and manufacturing quality control. The stipend may be used to help the students with expenses in their pursuit of a doctorate, such as laboratory supplies, books, materials, and travel costs.
Bonifacio graduated from the School’s Doctor of Pharmacy program in 2005. Her current research examines the cause of schizophrenia by studying the role of miRNA-mediated regulation of mRNA in the disease state. miRNAs are a type of RNA that is not translated into proteins. Instead, they bind to mRNAs and regulate their translation into proteins that function in cells. Bonifacio is investigating whether an alteration in the regulation of miRNA biogenesis contributes to the development of diseases such as schizophrenia.
Non-coding RNAs such as miRNA have received much attention recently. The 2006 Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to the two scientists who discovered RNA interference, a type of non-coding RNA that silences the expression of certain proteins by binding to and inhibiting the translation of target mRNAs.
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