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Pharmacy faculty tabbed for national panels; student wins national scholarship |
| By
Jim Winkler |
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Jul 23, 2008
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Two College of Pharmacy faculty members have been selected to serve on national panels, and a pharmacy student has earned a national scholarship.
Dr. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich, associate professor of medicinal and biological chemistry, has been named to the 27-member Cancer Etiology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review, while Dr. Johnnie L. Early, professor and dean, has been named to the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the National Center for Research Resources, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
In addition, Benjamin Kulow, a fourth-year graduate student from Fort Wayne, Ind., who is majoring in medicinal and biological chemistry, is the recipient of a $5,000 Gateway to Research Scholarship from the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education.
The NIH study section reviews grant applications related to the causal agents, processes and cells involved in early events in carcinogenesis, the process by which normal cells become cancer cells. It also makes recommendations and surveys the status on research in the field. The areas included in cancer etiology are gene regulation, DNA damage and repair mechanisms, and chemical and viral carcinogenesis. The focus is on linking disciplines of chemistry and pathology to cancer etiology.
Study section members are selected on the basis of their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other scientific activities, achievements and honors. Bryant-Friedrich’s appointment runs to June 2012.
The nine-member board that includes Early will oversee a pilot study on the use of vitamin D to promote good cardiovascular health, regularly monitoring the data, reviewing adverse event reports, and assessing the performance of the studies.
Kulow will use the award to help fund his research into a drug that may eventually be used to treat diabetes. The drug, which is similar to another drug in phase I trials for the treatment of a different disorder, works by inhibiting the synthesis of a saturated fat metabolite called ceramide that has been shown to cause insulin resistance through increasing cytokines and decreasing transcription factors that directly blunt insulin clearance and action.
He said the drug may lower plasma glucose levels in animal models of type 2 diabetes and obesity, and Kulow is working closely with synthetic chemists in the department to successfully synthesize the drug. He is responsible for daily administration of the drug and the proper documentation of study data.
Kulow has worked in the lab of Dr. Viranga Tillekeratne, associate professor of medicinal and biological chemistry, to synthesize the drug and will test it in diabetic mice under the mentorship of Dr. Sonia Najjar, professor of physiology and pharmacology and director in Center for Diabetes and Endocrine Research on Health Sciences Campus.
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