BPSCI Update

Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Update

The Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences continues to thrive. Over the past year, faculty in the department were awarded over $500,000 in new grant funds to support research within the College with current available funding of about one million dollars. This funding is particularly significant as it was obtained despite laboratory shutdowns in 2020 and supply line challenges that affected research throughout the country in 2021. The department continues to grow its graduate program as well, a necessary component of a growing research enterprise. Seven new students matriculated into the program this past fall, bringing the total number of students to 20. Two more students will be joining in the Spring semester 2022. Since our reestablishment of the Ph.D. and M.S. programs in 2018, this is the largest class we have admitted. This coming year is expected to be another hallmark for the growth of our graduate program as we begin to see increased graduations from this reenergized program. We are beginning the process of expanding our faculty numbers over the next few years. In spring of 2022 we will complete the search for a Medicinal Chemist in Pocatello, with other positions expected over the following year. This will likely include a toxicologist to take the place of Dr. Jim Lai who retired in 2020, and who was awarded emeritus rank at ISU in 2021. Our principal infectious disease expert in Meridian, Dr. Amy Bryant, retired this past year. Dr. Bryant was a significant contributor to research in our department and has been highly successful at obtaining industry partnership grants to support her research. We were fortunate to be able to hire Dr. Sarah Hobdey this past fall, who has similar research interests to Dr. Bryant. Dr. Hobdey will have co-appointments at ISU and the Idaho Veterans Research and Education Foundation (IVRERF). We hope this relationship will help develop more opportunities for collaboration with this important Idaho research foundation. Expansion of the graduate program, new faculty hires and increasing research funding would not have been possible without expansion of our research facilities. Key developments are departmental shared facilities in both Meridian and Pocatello. In Meridian, Dr. Danny Xu has been working to develop and expand our computational and zebrafish facilities. Zebrafish are a well-established model for drug discovery. In Meridian, zebrafish are currently being used by Dr. Xu to study the effects of drugs with toxicity to the inner ear (ototoxic drugs) and Dr. Gustavo Gonzalez-Cuevas, an affiliate of our department, is using them to study drugs affecting behavior. In Pocatello, emphasis has been placed on expanding the pharmaceutical facility that we created a few years ago. New acquisitions in instrumentation have expanded our ability to look at single cell changes in protein expression as well as expansion of our 3D tissue printing capability. Both technologies have applications across disciplines. Dr. Jared Barrott is using these technologies to develop new understanding and expand therapeutic approaches to cancer treatment that are expected to significantly impact Idahoans in the next few years. Dr. Prabha Awale will be using single cell techniques in her ongoing autism research that is aimed at identifying early cellular changes that lead to autism. Dr. Ali Habashi, who directs the facility, is researching a new sustained drug release technology that he developed to treat systemic inflammation that is evident in diseases such as arthritis, neural degeneration and cancer. Dr. Pashikanti is developing new drugs for cancer treatment as well as new neurological agents to treat age related hearing loss. The department views these shared research facilities as crucial to the continued development of research but, equally important, they are critical for training students in modern pharmaceutical research. This past fall, the department began work on a proposal for a potential new undergraduate program. This program is expected to be submitted in 2022 for consideration by the State Board of Education. The proposal will provide a unique undergraduate B.S. degree in Pharmaceutical and Cosmeceutical Sciences, training students for careers in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries. The program is envisioned as highly experiential, providing students with access to instrumentation, industrial pharmacy equipment, and opportunities for internships in industrial and academic laboratories. Students would also receive entrepreneurial training that will help them lead economic development in the state. This has been an exciting year for BPSCI with more growth and development anticipated in the coming years. The faculty in our department have worked exceedingly hard this past year to meet the challenges they face in research and teaching as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has included research delays, continued hybrid classes, and higher teaching workloads. As Department Chair, I am proud of how the faculty have responded, not only meeting the challenges, but continuing to expand our department’s impact. I can only imagine how much we will achieve in a non-pandemic future. Marvin Schulte, PhD, Department Chair and Professor